Purdue teaching assistant accused of stabbing, shooting fellow TA
A 23-year-old Purdue University teaching assistant, charged Thursday with murder, allegedly stabbed and shot a fellow TA to death inside an engineering building, according to court documents.
Cody M. Cousins, is accused of walking into a basement classroom Tuesday and killing Andrew Boldt, 21, prompting a campus-wide lockdown and large police response to the sprawling Indiana campus.
An affidavit released Thursday offered more details on the killing:
Purdue Police and West Lafayettte Police responded to several emergency calls about reports of shots fired at the electrical engineering building on campus about noon Tuesday.
West Lafayette Police Officer Kevin Coomey reportedly saw Cousins, 23, with blood on his hands and clothes, “sitting on the ground with his hands behind his head.” He took Cousins into custody.
Upon further investigation, police said they saw bloody footprints on the floor near Room 067, the classroom where officials discovered Boldt’s body. Police also located a handgun, several spent shell casings and a knife on the ground of the classroom.
Witnesses told police they saw Cousins stab and shoot Boldt, 21. However, the affidavit did not disclose the type of handgun used or how many shots were fired.
Video footage of inside the electrical engineering building, obtained by police, showed Cousins’ presence in the building, the affidavit said.
Cousins, of Centerville, Ohio, is scheduled to make his first court appearance at 2 p.m., said Joy Loser, secretary at the Prosecutor’s Office, in an email to The Times. The hearing will be in a courtroom attached to Tippecanoe County Jail, where Cousins is being held without bond.
Boldt’s family issued a statement through their church, St. Frances Cabrini in West Bend, Wis., asking for privacy during this time. Father Nathan Reesman wrote on the church’s website on Thursday a funeral Mass for Boldt is scheduled for Jan. 28 at 3 p.m.
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