Classroom gunman kills one student at Louisiana trade school

NATCHITOCHES, La. -- A gunman opened fire in a classroom at a Louisiana trade school on Monday, killing one student and wounding another, police said.

Calvin Joseph Coleman, 22, was arrested about an hour after the shootings, said Assistant Police Chief Chris Stanfield. Police said he had registered at Louisiana Technical College, but had not attended classes for several weeks.

Coleman will be charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and bringing a firearm on campus, said police chief Ralph Peters.

The shootings happened about 11:30 a.m. in an electronics class at the vocational-technical school's Natchitoches campus, Stanfield said. At the time, three students and an instructor were in the room, police said.

"He came into the classroom and fired four or five times," Stanfield said.

Investigators said they believe the dead man, identified as Terome Silvie, 32, was the intended target and the wounded man was a bystander. Silvie, who knew Coleman, was shot four times, while the other man was hit by a bullet fragment, police said.

Peters said after the shootings the gunman jumped into a car and left with someone who had been waiting for him. Police would not say if the other person had been arrested

The wounded man was treated for a minor leg wound and released from the hospital, police said.

Police were not sure of a motive in the shooting, Stanfield said.

According to the state corrections department, Silvie was paroled in March 2002 after serving just under seven years of a 20-year prison sentence for attempted manslaughter. That charge stemmed from a 1995 robbery in which two men were wounded.

Peters said the gunman was apparently not signed up for the class where the shooting took place.

Classes were canceled for the day after the shooting. The school, which has 675 students and 30 staff members, is one of 42 two-year schools in the state system of trade schools. In addition to associate degrees, the school also offers diplomas in skilled trades ranging from air conditioning to jewelry technology and practical nursing.

Natchitoches is in northwestern Louisiana, about 60 miles southeast of Shreveport.