Memphis Students Deal with Murder of Taylor Bradford

With school shootings at Virginia Tech last spring and Delaware State last week, the hub of Memphis, the University of Memphis, had its collective innocence shattered when Tiger football player Taylor Bradford was murdered outside his student apartment on Sunday night. Unfortunate and tragic, the murder of Taylor Bradford brought students and the city of Memphis to a pause as fears of whether the incident was a random act or a targeted act against Taylor Bradford.

The most disconcerting thing that is being taken away from this is how students are communicated with in the aftermath of a campus shooting. When the Virginia Tech massacre took place last spring, a thorough review was undertaken and steps were taken both there in Blacksburg as well as at campuses around the country to ensure that a similar incident is not replicated on another institution of higher learning. However, Robin Summers, a university junior, said she was not notified until almost noon that the shooting had taken place.

If it was an incident similar to the one at Virginia Tech, throngs of students would have been in harm's way as university security staff decided that the incident was an isolated incident that posed no further harm to any students at the University of Memphis. It is not known how university law enforcement came to such a decision, but when pragmatism should rule the day, assuming that the perpetrators would not return and that their intent was solely to do harm to Memphis football player Taylor Bradford is a major decision. And with the appearance that it was made without a credible idea of why someone would want to shoot Taylor Bradford makes students like Robin Summers wonder if a more cautious, approach should be undertaken.