Todd J. Van Emst / AP
Opelika police take a suspect into custody at Southern Union Community College on April 6 in Opelika, Ala. The unidentified man was arrested after he walked up to reporters and told them he was the person police were seeking in connection with a shooting on campus. The shooting at the college killed a 63-year-old woman, wounded two other women, ages 36 and 94, and injured a 4-year-old who was hit with flying glass.
OPELIKA, Ala. — Journalists covering a deadly shooting became part of the story when the man police say is the main suspect calmly walked up to them and told them he was the person authorities were after.
Thomas Franklin May, 34, was charged with capital murder and attempted murder and was being held without bond, Opelika Police Chief Tommy Mangham said.
He said Wednesday's parking lot shooting at a community college campus in eastern Alabama was related to a domestic problem and was preplanned.
One woman was killed and May's estranged wife and another woman were wounded, police said.
About three hours after the shooting, when city officers already had left campus, a man driving a white Jeep Liberty with the same tag number police had released as the suspect's pulled into the blood-splattered parking lot where the shootings happened and spoke to the news media.
Todd van Emst was taking photos for The Associated Press on the Southern Union Community College campus when May came up to him and asked to use his cell phone.
Van Emst said May gestured and said he "did all this."
"I said, 'Are you the shooter? He said, 'Yes.'" Continue reading.
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