TUCSON, Ariz. — The man who allegedly shot and killed University of Arizona professor Thomas Meixner was a previous university student who had been expelled and banned from campus earlier this year, Pima County Superior Court records show.
The ex-student, named Murad Dervish, was expelled from the university after several reports said Dervish was harassing and making threats against Harshbarger building staffers at the campus.
After the expulsion, the university sent an email out to staff instructing them to call the police if Dervish ever showed up. That's exactly what staff did when Dervish entered the building Wednesday before shooting Meixner with 9mm bullets.
"Unfortunately, law enforcement wasn’t in time to prevent this tragedy," said Michael McAndrews, a former FBI special agent. "Our system, as it’s built, is reactive."
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Court documents also detail how authorities detained Dervish.
Police reportedly tried to stop Dervish's vehicle three hours after the shooting on Arizona Highway 85 headed toward Mexico. Dervish reportedly ignored sirens for him to pull over, leading to officers stopping the car with a PIT maneuver.
A search of the car Dervish was driving found a loaded 9mm handgun with the same type of ammunition as the 11 shell casings found at the shooting scene.
"There are no easy answers, unfortunately," McAndrews said. "If the system worked in a perfect world we would have prevented the tragedy before it ever happened."
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