Hazard Community College Shooting: 2 Killed In Kentucky, One Day Before Obama Gun Control Speech

Two people are dead and a child is severely injured following a shooting on the campus of Hazard Community and Technical College in Southeast Kentucky, the Kansas City Star reports.

Hazard Police Chief Minor Allen said the killings were the result of a dispute between gunman Dalton Stidham, 21, and one of those killed, 20-year-old Caitlin Cornett. The male victim was Cornett’s uncle, 53-year-old Jackie Cornett.

“Everybody here's been pretty shook up,” said Conor Duff, HCTC evening coordinator. “This is definitely something people around here are not used to. We have our fair share of problems, but normally this isn't one of them.”

Caitlin was a student at the college who had a child with Stidham, though the girl injured in the incident was Jackie Cornett’s daughter. By the time police arrived at 6 p.m., both victims were dead. The child was rushed to intensive care at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, where she remains in critical condition.

College authorities moved quickly to lock down the campus following the attack, fearing a mass shooting in progress. Stidham used a semiautomatic pistol in the attack, and is charged with police of two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

The attack in Kentucky came one day before President Obama's scheduled speech on gun control, which aired on Wednesday. It was not the only gun incident to occur on a college campus on Tuesday: another school shooting occurred at the Stevens Institute of Business & Arts in Missouri.