U of A police chief takes responsibility for delay in notifying students of shooting

University of Arizona Police Chief Chris Olson says he takes “full responsibility” for the “failure” to notify the campus community in a timely manner of the on-campus shooting Sunday night.

“In this instance, we were quickly overwhelmed, and us falling short on that is my responsibility,” Olson said at a news conference Thursday. “I can assure the community that we’ve implemented changes to our UA alert system.”

Olson did not specify what went wrong with the UA Police Department alert system, saying only that his team has already made changes and that more training will be coming soon.

Students, staff and faculty were alerted about shots fired at a volleyball match more than 30 minutes after the shooting occurred outside the Arizona Sonora Residence Hall, a dormitory near Park Avenue and Fourth Street on the southwestern portion of campus.

The victim, 19-year-old Pima Community College student Minhaj Jamshidi, died after officials spent 10 minutes on the scene attempting life-saving measures, Olson said.

Ryan Romero-Encinas, 20, was arrested Wednesday by Tucson police on suspicion of first-degree murder. He regularly played volleyball on the courts, officials said at Thursday’s news conference, but most people did not know his name.

UAPD and the Tucson Police Department were aided in their investigation and search for Romero-Encinas by U.S. marshals and the Tucson FBI office.

Romero-Encinas returned to his apartment at 3:10 p.m. Wednesday to turn himself in, Olson said. His roommates called police and TPD and UAPD arrived to arrest him. He is in the Pima County jail with no bond.

Officials declined to disclose whether they were looking at charging others for potentially harboring the suspect before his arrest or whether the gun they obtained from the suspect was the one used in the shooting.

Immediately after the victim was shot, according to Olson, Jamshidi’s friends and family members physically picked him up and carried him from the court to a vehicle parked on the south side of the Arizona Sonora dorm in an effort to take him to a hospital. Once at the vehicle, however, they changed their minds and waited for first responders.

The first UAPD officer “arrived in minutes,” Olson said, with TPD following soon after to “secure the scene and locate witnesses.”

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There were several small fights before the shooting, but Olson did not elaborate on what police think was the motive.

Neither the victim nor the suspect was affiliated with the UA.

Staff are providing counseling to student witnesses or anyone else feeling affected. Olson said the university’s counseling and psychological services team provided mobile locations for students to “come to get resources,” and that UAPD is also offering victim advocate support to students.

This was the second fatal shooting to occur on the UA campus in under two years. Oct. 5 will be the two-year anniversary of the murder of UA professor Thomas Meixner, who was killed on campus by a former graduate student.

In April, Erin Jones, a UA sophomore, was killed when drive-by shooters sprayed an off-campus party with a volley of bullets.

Speaking at the news conference Thursday, Pima County Sherriff Chris Nanos and Tucson Police Chief Chad Kasmar connected Sunday night’s fatal shooting to the recent uptick of school shooting threats and the gun violence epidemic in the country.

“I hope our community continues to be outraged and disappointed and it drives conversations, frankly, at home, because that’s where we’re going to start a change,” Kasmar said. “Why is there a gun present at a volleyball game with young men in their early 20s or younger than that?”

Kasmar also said, “you have the ability to turn around and go the other way when there’s conflict. You don’t have to meet conflict with conflict.”

Both he and Nanos, who is up for reelection this November, emphasized the community’s role in preventing gun violence.

“This can’t just be a police problem to solve,” Kasmar said. “It’s got to be a community conversation that we have, and those conversations have to start early.”

Anyone with information about Romero-Encina is asked to call 911, the UAPD at 520-621-8273 or 88-CRIME, the anonymous tip line.