OPELIKA, Ala. — More than three hours after police had left the Southern Union Community College campus where a shooting that left one woman dead took place yesterday, the gunman returned to the scene. Thomas Franklin May, 34, pulled into the college’s parking lot, exited his vehicle, and asked a photographer if he could use his cell phone.
May told Todd Van Emst, a photographer, that he “did all this,” while pointing at the college’s blood-stained parking lot, the Daily Mail reports. When Emst asked May if he was the shooter, May said: “Yes.”
Journalists at the scene contacted police and May was taken into custody. According to Police Chief Tommy Mangham, one of the wounded women in the car May opened fire on was May’s estranged wife, Bethany L. May. Court records indicate that she filed a request against her husband last week seeking protection from abuse.
Of the other shooting victims, one was a student at the college and some of the victims were related, according to police.
May was charged with capital murder and attempted murder. He is being held without bail.
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