Gunman kills Purdue University teaching assistant

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Police say the man killed in a Purdue University shooting Tuesday was a senior at the school who was a teaching assistant, and the suspect is also a student.

Purdue Police Chief John Cox said Tuesday that 23-year-old Cody Cousins of Warsaw, Ind., is being held in the Tippecanoe County Jail on a preliminary charge of murder.

Cousins is accused of shooting 21-year-old Andrew Boldt of West Bend, Wis., in the university’s Electrical Engineering Building around noon Tuesday.

Cox says police are still investigating the motive behind the shooting but that it appears Cousins targeted Boldt. No one else was injured.

Cox says Boldt was a senior and worked as a teaching assistant in the school. Cousins is a student in the engineering school.

Boldt was an Eagle Scout whom a former teacher described as a “very capable student and an even better person.”

According to his LinkedIn profile, Boldt of West Bend, Wis., spent two summers interning for John Deere in Silvis, Ill., and planned to graduate in May.

Retired Latin teacher James Greenwald of Milwaukee’s Marquette University High School said his former student was bright and always willing to help others with technology issues.