FAU ‘back to normal’ following shooting in dorm

By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR

Florida Atlantic University is “back to normal” today, a spokeswoman said.

Shots fired in a dormitory room during a party early Wednesday forced the school into a lengthy lockdown and canceled classes and all activities that day on the Boca Raton campus.

Classes resumed Thursday morning, she said, and activities for the day went on as usual.

In the meantime, a suspect in the shooting, Omar Everton Graham Jr., a 23-year-old culinary school student from Royal Palm Beach, was arrested for allegedly firing three shots during a “physical altercation” at the party, said FAU Police Chief Charles Lowe.   

Police said Graham fired the shots shortly after 1 a.m. during a finals-week party at the University Village Apartments' building 58.

FAU authorities locked down the campus, barricading all entrances and ordering live-in students to stay in the rooms.

The lockdown was lifted after the suspect was located at Johnson & Wales University in North Miami, where he is a student. Campus staff recognized him from a surveillance photo released by FAU.

Graham is now being held in the Palm Beach County Jail, investigators said.

FAU President Frank Brogan said the incident Wednesday was the first test of expansive security and warning systems installed on campus following the shootings at Virginia Tech.  These include a reverse 911 system, an email alert to all students, a public address system and siren, among other things.

He said the equipment has only been in for a couple of months, and had not been fully tested.