The former student accused of fatally shooting a University of Arizona professor continued to harass staff members from the hydrology and atmospheric sciences department even after he had been issued a no contact order from the school, records show.
Also, San Diego State University police contacted the UA in September to report similar complaints of harassment of school employees by Murad Dervish, who had attended school there, UA police case reports show.
Dervish, 46, entered the John W. Harshbarger Building on Oct. 5 and shot Professor Thomas Meixner, the head of the school’s hydrology and atmospheric sciences department, in an office, authorities said previously.
Since October 2021, Dervish, who was a graduate student at the time, had ongoing issues with the school’s hydrology and atmospheric sciences department. Due to these issues, Dervish was dismissed from his degree program and his employment as a graduate student a month later, records show.
Dervish had blamed the department members for his dismissal, focusing his attention on two of the department’s professors: Christopher Castro and Eyad Atallah, records show. He had continually sent them harassing email and text messages, usually using profanity and concluding with the sentiment that someone should “blow their heads off,” the police reports state.
The issues were not originally addressed criminally because there was an ongoing administrative appeal process that was taking place, and staff members wanted that process to resolve before taking legal action, records show. Dervish was eventually issued an administrative no contact order on March 8, specifically identifying the two professors as well as Meixner and a fourth staff person as the protected parties.
Despite the order, Dervish continued to send messages to the professors even after the administrative process ended. As a result, one of the professors, Castro, was granted an Order of Protection through the Pima County Justice Court on Aug. 8, records show. The order had yet to be served despite multiple attempts to contact Dervish at his residence, the released records state.
On Sept. 6, the UA Police Department was contacted by the San Diego State University Police Department regarding Dervish. That department had recently taken a report from some of the school’s faculty regarding his harassing behavior, records say.
They told UA police that Dervish has been a student at the university a couple of years ago and had issues with some faculty members, sending them emails that included expletives and concluding with him recommending that someone should blow their head off, records show.
Although he had left the university a couple of years ago, he still continued to send emails, the UA police reports say.
“Due to threatening comments that Dervish has made over the last several months, staff within the department are on edge, and there is an underlying level of concern that he may try and show up on campus and cause harm to those he feels are responsible for his dismissal. While the concerns from the staff are real and warranted, there is no indication that Dervish intends to return to campus,” records show.
In addition to the professors, Dervish’s threats caused the UA assistant dean of students to work from home for two days because she “just doesn’t know what this guy will do.” She had supervised Dervish’s appeal process and had many contentious meetings and emails with him, records say.
Dervish has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited possessor, endangerment and burglary. He is being held without bond at the Pima County jail.
Chief Paula Balafas of the University of Arizona Police Department shared information on the shooting death of a male professor on Oct. 5. The suspect, 46-year-old Murad Dervish, was arrested by the Department of Public Safety near Gila Bend three hours after the shooting.
Video by Jesse Tellez / Arizona Daily Star.
