A man armed with a sharp-edged weapon that some media reports described as a bow and arrow killed two people, including a college faculty member, in Casper, Wyo., before taking his own life on Friday.
Police said officers were called to Casper College at about 9 a.m. local time to find "multiple victims" of an attack, and the campus was placed under a security lockdown, as were neighboring public schools.
Details released by authorities remained sketchy hours after the incident had ended and the security alert had been lifted.
"There have been three confirmed deaths at two separate crime scenes. One victim is a Casper College faculty member," Casper police said in a statement. "The suspect is also one of the dead and died of apparent suicide."
The statement also said no guns were involved in the crime and that the victims' "injuries were caused by a sharp-edged weapon."
Fire Captain Patrick McJunkin, a city public information officer, declined to elaborate on the nature or circumstances of the violence, except to say a male faculty member was killed on campus and that a female victim was slain off-campus. He also said the assailant knew at least one of his victims.
The Casper Star Tribune reported that the attack on the faculty member and the suspect's suicide both unfolded in a third-floor classroom of the college's physical science center while a class was in session there.
The newspaper also cited campus rumors that the assailant had used a bow and arrow, and it said police believed the off-campus attack had occurred first.
NBC News reported the killer was armed with a "bow-and-arrow-type" weapon, citing the accounts of police, college officials and witnesses. McJunkin declined comment on the bow-and-arrow reports.
Police said the suspected assailant was not currently enrolled at the community college and that the attack did not "appear to be school motivated."
The school, where some 5,000 students are enrolled, said classes were canceled for the day and that counselors were available to students.
Casper is the second-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne, the state capital.
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