Content warning: This story contains mention of gun violence and alleged domestic violence.
According to reports from the Houston Chronicle, a Rice University student was killed on the first day of the fall semester. Police are now investigating her death as a murder-suicide in her dorm room.
The Rice University junior, Andrea Rodriguez Avila, was found dead in her Jones College dorm room after a welfare check by the university police department on August 26, school officials said in a press conference. A man who was not believed to be a Rice student was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Rice students and staff were given a shelter-in-place order on Monday, and all classes and activities remained canceled after the order was lifted that evening. Classes were also canceled on Tuesday.
"It is with deep sadness and shock that I write to you on what should have been a day filled with promise and new beginnings. Instead, we find ourselves mourning the loss of one of our own in a tragic event that has shaken our campus to its core," university President Reginald DesRoches wrote in a message sent to the Rice community on Monday. "This is a heartbreaking, devastating incident, and it is important to recognize that this loss will affect our close-knit community in the days and weeks ahead."
DesRoches urged students to seek support from the Rice community, adding, "We encourage you to come together as a community, spend time with each other to mourn and use the campus resources available for counseling.”
According to reports from ABC13 Houston after Monday’s news conference, Rodriguez Avila was found alongside an unidentified man police believe she was dating, who investigators think died by suicide after shooting her. The head of the university police said officers found a note believed to be left behind by the shooter.
"In general terms, it was a lot about their relationship, and obviously they were having a troubled relationship at this time," Rice University Police Chief Clemente Rodriguez said, according to ABC News reports from the news conference.
According to a report cited by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, nearly half (43%) of dating college women report experiencing violent and abusive dating behaviors from partners, and nearly a third (29%) of women in college say they’ve been in an abusive dating relationship. Over half (52%) of college women say they know a friend who has “experienced violent and abusive dating behaviors” which extends to physical, sexual, online, or other forms of controlling abuse. Everytown, a gun violence prevention organization, reports that more than 4.5 million women have been threatened with a gun by an intimate partner, and access to a gun makes it five times more likely that a woman will die because of a domestic abuser.
This is a developing story.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or intimate partner violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, available 24/7, for confidential assistance from a trained advocate. If you’re unable to speak safely via phone, you can chat online at thehotline.org.
