Attempted murder charge after fight, gunshot in NKU dorm

Associated Press

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — An 18-year-old man who police said fired a gunshot in a dormitory at Northern Kentucky University during a fight with another man has been charged with attempted murder.

University police said Timothy A. Stone got into a fight with the other man in a female student's room in James P. Callahan Residence Hall early Wednesday morning. The Kentucky Enquirer reports that the other man, Jody Wright, an ex-boyfriend of the student, was not hurt.

Witnesses told police that Stone, of Cincinnati, pulled a .25-caliber pistol out during the struggle and fired. The bullet went out a window. "He held it to the victim's head and we believe attempted to use it," University Police Chief Harold Todd said.

Todd said Wright wrested the gun from Stone, and then the two men, who were not students, and the female fled. Todd says Wright threw the gun in the Ohio River.

A student called 911 after hearing a gunshot. Officers searched the dorm, viewed surveillance tapes and interviewed witnesses soon after the call, Todd said.

The university said in a statement that campus police "sought the most serious charges possible under the circumstances." Stone was also charged with first-degree wanton endangerment. The female student, who was not identified by police, is facing school disciplinary charges.

Stone was arrested by Cincinnati police on Wednesday and has been lodged in the Hamilton County Jail in Cincinnati on a $500,000 bond.