Delta State University history professor shot dead, shooter still at large

Prof. Ethan Schmidt

Ethan Schmidt, a history professor at the Delta State University, Mississippi, was shot in the head while in his office.
The hunt for Schmidt's killer, who remains at large, has brought together campus police and city police as well as the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Bolivar County Sheriff's Department and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The suspect’s vehicle was found on the Delta State campus Monday, but police have not yet found the man.
“So we’re investigating whether both incidents are related, but we believe they are at this time,” Officer Matt Hoggatt said.
Schmidt previously taught history for six years at Texas Tech University in Lubbock before joining the faculty at Delta State. His first book, “The Divided Dominion: Social Conflict and Indian Hatred in Early Virginia,” was published last year by the University of Colorado Press. The book covers the relationships between Native American tribes and settlers in colonial America. It also discusses the role Native Americans played in the Revolutionary War and highlights perspectives from tribes including the Cherokee, Iroquois, and Seminole.
He told the American Historical Association that he became interested in history as a child watching his father collect Civil War memorabilia, the Washington Post reports.
He said he became a historian to study “the very core of what it is that makes us human.”
“Our triumphs, our tragedies, our flaws, and our strengths are all laid bare by the scholarly study of history, and without this kind of inquiry there is little hope for mankind,” Schmidt told the AHA.