<p>Reports from Jasper, AL:
Copper Top shooting suspect is in custody that claimed he “shot up Copper Top bar”</p>
<p>Police believe it was a “targeted” shooting, not random.</p>
<p>I haven’t been on in awhile due to time constraints (caregiving for my mom). I frequented this site quite a bit during our son’s preparation to attend UA. We live in Texas. This site was (is) a wonderful resource for all of us.</p>
<p>I really hope to respond to the parent who mentioned that they are about to send their child several states away…just as we did. We had the same fear…the same “what if” moments last year. Then, his freshman fall semester, his friend was injured through no fault of her own. Our phone rang at 2:00 a.m. and you all know that awful clenching in your stomach. You grab the phone and say “Are you safe?” He responds yes and the next question is “Are you hurt?” Then it’s the choked up, tear filled voice saying, “It’s not me Mom.” </p>
<p>To make a long story short, he and his roommate responded when learning she was injured, they notified the campus police, Honors College staff and her parents (out-of-state also). At 11:30 p.m., five minutes after campus police and staff wrap everything up, there is a knock at the door and the Dean is there. He took them all out to breakfast and spent two hours talking with them. He was honest, supportive, candid and wonderful. What he did for those three freshman, all out-of-state students, made all the difference in the world. I cannot imagine that happening anywhere else but UA, and I qualify that by saying I work for a University. </p>
<p>When I say UA is home to a special breed of faculty and staff, I wholeheartedly mean it. They do respond to our students in the very best and very worst of times. It is not marketing or a convenient response. It is truly giving our students the lifelong skill sets needed to address whatever comes there way. I am very confident that Judy Bonner and her staff will more than rise to the occassion in this horrible incident. God Bless them, those affected by the incident and their families.</p>
<p>You make me smile. Great post.:)</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear this wasn’t random…it is seldom random. Apparently he walked into a store and confessed to two people and a police officer. No name released or further info that I can find. There is a video of a witness to the shooting detailing the ordeal.</p>
<p>crimson-thank you for sharing your son’s story. It is comforting to know that, at such a large university, the students are NOT just a number. I’m sorry that your son and his friends had to experience such an ordeal.</p>
<p>The latest email from UA:</p>
<p>"Law enforcement officials have taken the suspect from this morning’s shooting into custody. TPD has announced that they will have a press conference at 1 p.m. "</p>
<p>So now I guess we wait for all the details from this press conference.</p>
<p>DD is fine! DH & I shaken!</p>
<p>She was actually in the back of Coppertop at the time of the shootings.
(That was something I never thought about posting on CC!)</p>
<p>She said they heard a comotion and thought it was fireworks. Then someone ran into back and told everyone to get down!</p>
<p>After the shootings she said those that were able helped those in need. She helped a girl with a injured leg. She was applying pressure. She turned her over to paramedic. She was not sure of the extent of the injury…just wanted to stop the bleeding.</p>
<p>She thought the response from the Tuscaloosa Police and EMS was swift.
They asked everyone to stay for info. But her group did not see anything.</p>
<p>Our thoughts & prayers are with those injured!</p>
<p>I’m glad your daughter is safe.</p>
<p>The police indicated they wouldn’t release the shooter’s name, but someone has released it on FB already…I’m guessing someone who knew him?</p>
<p>Crimsonmom- thank you for sharing your story. I can’t even begin to imagine how you felt. I am so comforted by what you told me about the dean and how the school helped the kids. I, too, am sending my S far away to school and just knowing that there are people at UA who care so much about the kids makes me feel so much better. My prayers are with everyone in Tuscaloosa now.</p>
<p>I was actually going to post this in its own thread, but it seems like a good followup to what CrimsonMom said. My husband is attending an AT&T continuing ed class and yesterday sat next to the woman who heads up the AT&T scholarship foundation (she was from Texas). My D has one of these scholarships for employee’s children. She asked where D attended school and when husband told her Alabama she looked a little “surprised.” I’ve now trained him to give the Alabama pep talk when he encounters this response. He told her that D was accepted to other top tier schools but that no other university handled the application process in the positive way that Bama did. He explained that, while he might have preferred Georgia Tech at first, he came to believe that none of the other schools were as student and family focused, organized, and caring as Alabama. He added that we firmly believed that Bama would continue to provide that same care and concern for our child when she became a student and that her first year had proved that to be true. Bad stuff does happen everywhere (Georgia Tech is having a huge and scary problem with on campus robberies at gunpoint). It is how we respond that matters, and Alabama does it impeccably. </p>
<p>So relieved the shooter is in custody, especially with move-in just around the corner.</p>
<p>Omama – so glad that your daughter is safe. Praying for the other shooting victims and relieved that the shooter is in custody.</p>
<p>Crimsonmom and Omama – all I can say is WOW!! Omama, so glad your child is safe.</p>
<p>Additional information published along with pics of alleged suspect:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.myfoxal.com/story/19045742/jasper-pd-tuscaloosa-shooting-suspect-wanted-suicide-by-cop[/url]”>http://www.myfoxal.com/story/19045742/jasper-pd-tuscaloosa-shooting-suspect-wanted-suicide-by-cop</a></p>
<p>The Tuscaloosa News has some disturbing pictures of him holding the assault weapon allegedly taken down from his FB page also.</p>
<p>Praying for the victims. So glad you D and her friends are unharmed. Thank you for keeping us up-to-date.</p>
<p>Just read the story on MSN, said the this guy’s bail was set at $100,000. Is that judge nuts?</p>
<p>This is what I saw, did they change it?? </p>
<p>A suspect, identified as Nathan Van Wilkins, has been arrested and charged with one count of attempted murder. Investigators are working to obtain 16 additional warrants for attempted murder and one for shooting into an occupied business. When all warrants for Wilkins are obtained, his total bond will be $1,730,000.</p>
<p>He’s not going anywhere. It’s over $2m after more charges were filed this afternoon. This is one disturbed individual.
Malanai (the resident shrink)-I think that we could all use a little positive soothing right now.</p>
<p>Just talked to my younger son. Turns out he and a few pals were at Wilhagen’s bar (a couple doors down) celebrating a pal’s 21st Bday at the time. They had gone into CopperTop first, but said they left because it had an “older crowd” there. </p>
<p>I reminded him that bad things tend to happen more frequently late at night and to avoid bar-like places after midnight. :(</p>
<p>^^^^^ Yikes! I hope that has him thinking!! </p>
<p>Prayers to all involved.</p>
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<p>My view is that it’s healthy to be emotionally unsettled by tragic events, such as that which just occurred in Tuscaloosa, and that we should use the heightened sense of awareness that such feelings engender to embrace every moment gifted to us, live and love fully, choose wisely, and do our best to leave no regrets on the table . . . for life is fragile, the only thing we truly control is ourselves, and the future is never guaranteed.</p>
<p>My heart goes out to the victims of this senseless, sick act.</p>