Sunday night shooting is third incident near campus

The front office of the WKU Police Department.

Michael Dylan Payne

A shooting near campus Sunday marks the third shooting-related incident close to WKU in the last four weeks.

Ronnie Ward, Bowling Green Police Departments Public Relations Officer, said police responded to several reports of shots fired around the area of Kenton Street and the 31 W Bypass early Sunday morning.

“At 1:46 a.m., two 911 callers reported hearing five gunshots from what sounded like a handgun,” Ward said. “A total of 5 calls came in, but BGPD were unable to locate anything at the scene.”

The first incident happened on Oct. 20 around 10:52 p.m. at The Den on the west side of campus when a gunman discharged his weapon inside the restaurant, the bullet ricocheting off the ground and becoming lodged in a table, according to WKU Police.

As of last week, there were no new developments with this case, and police were still looking for a silver four-door sedan in connection with the shooting on campus.

The second incident happened on Oct. 27 around 7:10 p.m. in the vicinity of 13 and College Street when 911 callers reported hearing as many as 12 gun shots that sounded like they were coming from the backside of Midtown Apartments.

One 911 caller reported seeing a Chevrolet Malibu and a Chevrolet pick-up truck speeding away from the area, down Alumni Avenue, crossing College Street and entering the alley across the street from Alumni Avenue. One of the vehicles reportedly had a flat tire.

Later that night, WKU Police Department tweeted that there was an investigation underway by BGPD regarding reports of gunshots in the area, and that a silver sedan and light blue pickup truck may be involved.

There are only two 911 calls that are connected to the incident on October 20 and neither mentions the color of the vehicles involved.

WKU PD said that the information contained in the Tweet came from a BGPD officer and that the information related to the alleged color of the vehicles has since been proven not to be accurate.

BGPD initially said no report was filed because police were unable to find anything at the scene, however, a subsequent investigation was opened and a number of spent shell casing were recovered in the area.

The recovered casings were entered into a national database where they will be compared to other casings recovered throughout the nation.

BGPD said if the gun was used again and they were able to recover casings, they would be able to tell if it was the same gun.

Ward said any casings recovered by WKU PD would be compared to those recovered from 13th and College.

Tim Gray, WKU PD Public Relations Officer, said the only thing recovered from The Den was a fragmented bullet lodged into a table.

WKU PD said no shell casings have been recovered in connection to the shooting at The Den, meaning there’s nothing to compare to the casings BGPD found in the vicinity of 13th and College Street.

BGPD and WKU PD have no suspects for any of the three incidents, and it’s not clear if the incidents are related.

People with information related to these events are encouraged to contact the Bowling Green or WKU police departments.

Michael Dylan Payne can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @mdpayne_.