miss
John Sanderson, a 21-year-old male student at Mississippi State University, was fatally shot on Saturday night and found dead in a dorm room during an isolated school shooting. According to school officials, three suspects fled the scene of the shooting and are still at large. Facebook/Mississippi State Uni

John Sanderson, a 21-year-old student at Mississippi State University, was shot Saturday night and found dead in a dorm room. Three people fled the scene and are still at large, school officials said.

Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum said campus police were notified of the shooting around 10 p.m. on Saturday night and arrived at Evans Hall, the scene of the incident, within one minute.

Sanderson was found at the scene and rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. There were no other injuries or deaths reported. The suspects fled in a blue Crown Victoria.

The perpetrators fled our campus, but we're still attempting to identify who those perpetrators are and so we're following every lead in order to do that, said Dr. Bill Kibler, vice president of student affairs at MSU.

Students were notified via the university website at 10:37 p.m. and another alert at 11:17 p.m. confirmed Sanderson had died. According to the university officials, the shooting seems isolated and students do not appear to be in danger.

I do not believe there's any imminent threat to our students on the campus right now. This appears to be an incident that was contained there involving those that were involved, Kibler said. Our local city police department and the county sheriff's office are all participating cooperatively in patrolling our campus and conducting a full scale investigation.

Mississippi State University is currently operating under an emergency status and set up a call service for parents of students while the campus is on lockdown.

No one's being admitted to the residence halls other than residents themselves. That's all being screened very carefully, Kibler said. We have not locked down the entire campus.

Keenum said this was the first shooting at the school, located 125 miles northeast of Jackson.

This is the first time in our school's history that such a tragic incident has occurred, involving a student being shot on campus, he said. Our campus is known as a safe place, and I want to assure students, parents, faculty, and staff that it continues to be safe.