MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama State University student has been charged in the killing of a classmate, nearly two weeks after the classmate failed to return to his campus dorm room.
Ivry Hall, a 20-year-old junior from Chicago, was booked Friday on a murder charge in the shooting death of sophomore Adam Dowdell Jr., 22, Montgomery Police Capt. Saba Coleman said.
Dowdell was found dead Sept. 14 less than a quarter-mile from the university campus, nearly a week after he left his dorm room with a friend to visit an ATM and never returned, Montgomery police have said.
The agency said in a statement Friday that the circumstances surrounding the shooting remained unknown. Police did not detail the relationship between Hall and Dowdell.
The president of the historically Black university in Montgomery, Quinton T. Ross Jr., acknowledged the arrest in a statement to the campus community and offered condolences to Dowdell’s family and friends.
“This is certainly a difficult time for the university, and we must find ways to support one another,” the statement said.
At a vigil in Dowdell’s hometown of Alabaster on Thursday, loved ones remembered him as a talented athlete and aspiring special education teacher, The Montgomery Advertiser reported.
Hall was profiled by news outlets in both Alabama and Illinois after losing both parents and graduating from his high school as valedictorian and acclaimed athlete, The Montgomery Advertiser said. He was attending Alabama State University on a scholarship. It was unclear whether Hall had an attorney who could comment for him.