Campus Crime

Central Michigan Student Caught; Police Say He Killed His Parents With Father’s Gun

Police encountered James Davis Jr. twice before the shooting, sending him to the hospital for erratic behavior.

A Central Michigan University (CMU) student — who police say shot and killed his parents in a dorm room Friday as they came to pick him up for spring break — was apprehended early Saturday after a manhunt that involved more than 100 police officers in and around Mount Pleasant, MI.

Police said Saturday that James Eric Davis Jr. killed his father — who was a part-time police officer in the Chicago area — and his mother with a handgun that was registered to his dad. He faces two first-degree murder and a felony weapon charge.

Officials think the 19-year-old brought the gun from a parking lot into the dorm campus police Chief Bill Yeagley said, per CNN.

“What we know for sure is that the gun was registered to his father, and that we saw … he (Davis Jr.) came from the parking lot into our residence hall with the gun, and the father was upstairs at that time,” Yeagley said.
Davis was captured on campus in the very early hours of Saturday.

CMU Emergency Communications posted this message on their website early this morning:

“The suspect was seen and reported by an individual on a train passing through the north end of campus shortly after midnight. Law enforcement personnel responded and arrested the suspect without incident.

CMU President George E. Ross thanks the campus and surrounding community and many law enforcement personnel who came together to keep each other safe and apprehend the suspect.”

The campus had been locked down for most of the day and students who were planning to leave campus for spring break were forced to stay indoors until police released them late in the afternoon.

A CMU basketball game was postponed as well.

CMU identified the victims as Davis’ mother Diva Davis and father James Davis Sr., who was a part-time police officer in the Chicago suburb of Bellwood, where the family was from.

The killings took place not long after his parents picked him up from the hospital, where he had been sent by campus police after they encountered him twice on campus “not really making a lot of sense” — once Thursday night and once shortly after midnight, said Yeagley.

Officers suspected his behavior involved drugs and called his parents in the Chicago area, which prompted them to head to the campus Friday morning. After leaving the hospital, the three went to Davis Jr.’s dorm room to pick up some belongings.

Throughout the day, CMU students and classmates were posting images of Davis on social media to aid the search.