Developing Incident 1/15/2013

January 16, 2013 - Statement from HCTC President in Response to January 15 Shooting

Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC) is sad to learn one of the shooting victims, Caitlin Cornett, has been identified as a former student. She was enrolled at HCTC in 2010-11 and had recently registered for a course scheduled to begin in February. We send our condolences to her family and friends, as well as the HCTC faculty, staff and students who may have come in contact with this young lady. Our thoughts continue to be with all of the victims families and loved ones.

This incident has certainly shaken our community and has caused us to evaluate the safety and security procedures we already have in place. Our crisis planning and safety drills prepared our team to take the necessary action to secure the campus during this recent incident. We will continue to look for areas of improvement and ways to strengthen our security procedures. The Hazard Campus will remain closed today and there will be no evening classes. It will reopen on a normal schedule Thursday, January 17. We want to thank the Hazard Police Department, our area first responders and the Hazard community for their assistance and support during this difficult time.

Steve Greiner, HCTC President

January 15, 2013 Tonight at approximately 5:56 p.m. police were called to a shooting on the Community College Drive Campus of Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC). Police have confirmed two people were killed and a third person was injured. This incident has shocked and saddened the HCTC community.

Our thoughts and sympathy are with the families of the victims of this tragedy, said HCTC President Dr. Steve Greiner. We are cooperating fully with the authorities and they have shared with us they do not believe the college was specifically targeted. Fortunately our staff was prepared and responded quickly to secure our campus buildings to limit the impact of this shooting. I am pleased with their response and I want to assure our students, staff and the community we will do all we can to maintain the safety and security of our college.

The Community College Drive (Highway 15) Campus will be closed Wednesday, January 16 as police continue their investigation of this shooting and the college community begins to heal from this tragedy. All other HCTC campuses will be open.

Any inquiries related to the identities of those involved should be directed to police. At this time it does not appear the victims or suspects were students or employees of HCTC.