A Brigham Young University student died Monday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a BYU spokesman said.
S. Russell Young, 18, Newburg, Md., a freshman majoring in business management, was shot shortly after 6 p.m. in Deseret Towers.Brent Harker, BYU assistant director of public communications, said Young forced his way into the room of another student, also 18, closed the door and told him to lie on the floor. Harker said the student believed he was going to be shot, but Young sat down, put a 12-guage shotgun under his own chin and pulled the trigger.
Harker said the student on the floor, who was hit by a stray pellet from the gun, got up and ran from the room.
The shotgun was purchased Monday, said Paul Richards, BYU public communications director.
BYU Police Chief Robert Kelshaw said the shooting was only the second on campus in BYU history. The first happened in 1983 in Wymount Terrace when an estranged husband shot his wife, Kelshaw said.