The former student who police said shot and killed a University of Arizona professor has a history of violent crime, including trying to kill his parents, his father said.
On Oct. 5, Murad Dervish, 46, entered the John W. Harshbarger Building, near East Second Street and North Mountain Avenue and fatally shot Professor Thomas Meixner. Meixner was the head of the school’s hydrology department and an expert on desert water issues.
Dervish fled the scene and was later found on Interstate 8 at Gila Bend after the Arizona Department of Public Safety conducted a traffic stop. A UA police spokesperson said Dervish was booked into the Pima County jail on Thursday morning.
Dervish, who has lived in San Diego and in Pennsylvania, is being charged on suspicion of first-degree murder and aggravated assault of a deadly weapon, the spokesperson said. A handgun was used in the shooting, police said.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Dervish received good grades in school and had a normal childhood, Dolgun Dervish, his father said. When it came to having friends or joining clubs, though, Dervish strictly stuck by his parents’ side.
“He did not have any friends. He did not join in any groups. He did not want to take any pictures. He was a different child,” Dolgun said in an interview Thursday.
As Dervish grew older, Dolgun said he developed an issue with alcohol. Although Dolgun never had alcohol in the house, Dervish got alcohol from work and “loved it.”
Dolgun also said Dervish had been in prison three times.
In one violent incident, he said Dervish put a scarf around his mother’s neck and tried to strangle her. “One morning he got up with a crowbar with no reason at all, attacked me and he also tried to kill me,” Dolgun said.
Online records show Dervish was arrested on serious charges by the San Diego police in 2011 and he was later sentenced to prison. Records do not show what the charges involved, and officials could not be reached in California to provide information about the case.
Due to the violence, Dolgun said he became estranged from his son and hadn’t spoken to him in years.
“I’m very, very sorry for the family that is suffering right now who lost a father or son,” Dolgun said about the UA shooting.
According to UA police, Dervish was not allowed on campus due to his expulsion from the school. Although he was expelled, Dervish hadn’t been put on the exclusionary order list yet.
Dervish “was someone who was known to staff members that as a former student he should not be in the building,” UA Police Chief Paula Balafas said at a news conference Wednesday.
UA police were working on the exclusionary order for Dervish and had it filled out, however officers had to make contact with him first. Dervish was unable to be contacted before the shooting took place, the spokesperson said.
The only court record Dervish had in Pima County was an eviction notice. Last week, the Tucson Justice Court gave Dervish a five-day notice after he failed to pay his $895 rent, court records show. Dervish failed to appear for his hearing.
According to San Diego court records, Dervish had a restraining order filed against him in 2020 along with a domestic violence case that involved his mother in 2011. Other court records show he had been arrested for driving under the influence in Pennsylvania.
