Bad News From Wes

Lawd knows that I give no end of grief to the People's Glorious Soviet of Middletown, but this is horrid, horrid stuff:

Police urged students at Wesleyan University to stay locked in their dorms, and city's only synagogue was shut down, as authorities said a man wanted in the bookstore shooting death of a Wesleyan student had threatened the woman years before, and may now be targeting the school and Jews.

Police urged university students and local Jewish leaders to be "extra vigilant" while they sought 29-year-old Stephen Morgan. Investigators believe that Morgan disguised himself with a wig and shot 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich, a junior from Timnath, Colo., at her job at a cafe inside Broad Street Books, a popular bookstore.

Justin-Jinich was Jewish. Evidence "suggests that Mr. Morgan may be focused on the Wesleyan University campus as well as the Jewish community," Middletown Police Chief Lynn Baldoni Baldoni said at a news conference Thursday. "Investigators have been in contact with Wesleyan University and leaders of the Jewish community, urging both to be extra vigilant."

Local police would only say that the shooting was not a random act, but a New York City police report shows that Morgan allegedly threatened Justin-Jinich in 2007, when they were attending New York University.

I learned of Justin-Jinich's death this morning from an email sent round to alumni. Requiescat in pace. And may they quickly get the shooter.