University and community leaders gathered Wednesday at the CAC Theatre for a discussion on ways to improve campus safety in light of a recent homicide at Fairmount Towers, and three others in the neighborhoods surrounding campus.

The forum was a continuation of the discussion that started last fall after a woman was killed in Fairmount Park, just south of campus, in November.

Nearly 60 students, faculty, staff and community members attended the vigil Wednesday. Some of the speakers included Chief of University Police Sara Morris, Student Body President Joseph Shepard, Ted Ayres, who is leading the Enough is Enough task force, and Athletic Director Eric Sexton — who is now vice president of Student Affairs.

Speakers offered solutions to safety concerns such as traveling in groups after night classes and possibly adding lighting around campus.

Fairmount Towers homicide

In the early morning hours of Aug. 8, Wichita Police responded to calls about a man lying in the parking lot of Fairmount Towers, which is located on the northwest corner of 21st and Hillside. Upon arrival, police found Wichita State electrical engineering student Rayan Ibrahim Baba with multiple gunshot wounds.

He later died as a result of his wounds.

The next day, two arrests were made in connection with the shooting. According to Sedgwick County arrest reports, Isaiah Copridge, 23, and Eboni Fingal, 19, were both arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder.

The two suspects were acquaintances of Baba’s and they were not students at Wichita State, said Lou Heldman, vice president of Strategic Communications at WSU.

Status of the suspects

On Aug. 14 — five days after they were taken into custody — the two suspects were both released without prejudice from the charges of first-degree murder, but the two remain in custody at the Sedgwick County Jail, said Dan Dillon, a spokesman with the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office. Copridge is being held on a parole violation and Fingal for a probation violation.

Copridge was already under parole supervision by the Kansas Department of Corrections before the homicide, said Adam Pfannelstiel, a spokesman with KDOC.

At the safety forum Wednesday, Wichita Police Captain Brian White said the suspects’ violations of probation and parole allows the suspects to be held in custody longer while the police gather evidence.

“Otherwise, the suspects would have walked,” Morris said, because of laws in place that require investigators to file charges within a certain time frame of the suspects being arrested. “[The violations] allow investigators time to tie up loose ends.”

The Rayan Ibrahim Baba case remains under investigation by the Wichita Police Department, Morris said.

A ‘safe campus’

Morris pointed out to the audience Wednesday that the campus is safe; she said crime numbers are low when you look at the annual crime report.

For some students, reassurances of safety around campus aren’t enough.

Within 72 hours of Baba’s death, three more people were killed due to gun violence within a one-mile radius of Wichita State.

On Aug. 10 near the intersection of 14th Street and North Lorraine, Dorce Pittman, 42, was found by Wichita police, lying in the street with a gunshot wound to the head.

About two hours later, in the 2600 block of North Minnesota Court, police said that Jordan Bobo, 28, shot and killed Alaysia E. Sellers, 21, and then shot and killed himself. A third victim was also shot, but survived.

“You keep claiming that campus is safe,” said Saeed Alsaleeb, a master’s student from Saudi Arabia studying electrical engineering. “All my classes are in the evening. All the while, I’m scared to walk from my class to my car. I can’t understand that campus is safe when someone is killed.”

“That’s a terrible thing,” said Christine Schneikart-Luebbe, dean of students.

Schneikart-Luebbe had concerns about Alsaleeb’s fears, but she reminded the audience that the shooting at Fairmount Towers wasn’t a random act because Baba knew the suspects.

Morris added that students have a misunderstanding between “the perception of crime, and fear of crime versus reality.”

“We’re a pretty safe campus,” she said.

“However, there are things that occur in campuses and communities that are not as safe,” said Sexton, vice president of Student Affairs.

Ted Ayers, retired WSU general counsel and chair of the “Enough is Enough” task force, agreed.

The problem, he said, will be putting words into action that is both meaningful and relevant.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Yes, I support this,’ but we need to translate that knowledge that we care into a demonstration that we care.”

— Contributing: Shelby Reynolds of The Sunflower