A professor at the University of Arizona was fatally shot on the campus in Tucson on Wednesday, and a suspect was apprehended shortly after, according to a NBC News report, citing the University Police Chief Paula Balafas. 

Professor Thomas Meixner was shot and killed by Murad Dervish, 46. 

Speaking at a news conference, Chief Balafas said that the event was “tremendously tragic” and that her heart went out to the professor’s family, friends and colleagues. She said that her department did not know whether there was any motive to the murder. 

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According to the report, a university staffer called the police saying that a former student who wasn’t supposed to be in the  John W. Harshbarger Building was there. By the time the police had arrived the shooting had already occurred. Dervish alleged escaped from the building through the main doors, according to Chief Balafas. 

He was later apprehended by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, 120 miles away near Gila Bend during a traffic stop. 

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Who is Murad Dervish?

Murad Can Dervish is a 46-year-old who was recently arrested by the Arizona Department of Public Safety for the murder of University of Arizona professor Thomas Meixner. He was apparently a former graduate student at the university, according to a report from KOLD News. 

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Dervish’s LinkedIn page states that he was previously a teaching assistant at the San Diego State University, where is he is also registered as a student at the climate informatics laboratory there. 

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The former University of Arizona student has a criminal history in the city of San Diego, the same place he attended SDSU. However, records aren’t immediately available.

He has a restraining order from a woman with the same last name, filed against him in 2020. A woman, perhaps the same woman, as they share the same last name, also filed domestic abuse allegations against him back in 2011, according to court records.