St. Louis college student shoots school employee

By Tim Bross

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - A student armed with a pistol opened fire at a college in downtown St. Louis on Tuesday, shooting a school employee and then turning the gun on himself, police said.

Both men are expected to survive the incident, which occurred at about 2 p.m. local time at the Stevens Institute of Business & Arts, according to St. Louis Police Department spokesman David Marzullo.

The student, in his early 20s, shot a man in his 40s, who is believed to be a school administrator, in the torso, Marzullo said.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, speaking to reporters on a video posted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on its website, described the suspected gunman as someone who "had been a part-time student, off and on, for the past four years."

Dotson said the student was familiar to the faculty and the staff, and he said the suspect and victim knew each other. "It did not appear to be random," he said.

The police did not identify either man.

Officers responding to the scene found the shooter in a stairwell with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his torso. Marzullo said police did not yet know Of a motive.

The school has about 180 students.

(Reporting By Tim Bross; Editing by Mary Wisniewski, Cynthia Johnston and Leslie Adler)