Stephen Morgan – Police urged Wesleyan University students and local Jewish leaders to be extra vigilant while they sought 29-year-old Stephen Morgan, pictured below, for an off-campus shooting.
Investigators believe that Morgan disguised himself with a wig and shot 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich, at her job at a cafe inside Broad Street Books, a popular bookstore across the street from Wesleyan University.
Authorities said Morgan previously had threatened the young Jewish woman in 2007 and may now be targeting her school and Jews.
Local police would only say that the shooting was not a random act, but a New York City police report shows that Morgan allegedly threatened Justin-Jinich in 2007, when they were attending New York University.
Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint on July 10, 2007, claiming that he was calling her repeatedly and sent her insulting e-mails for at least a week.
“You’re going to have a lot more problems down the road if you can’t take any (expletive) criticism, Johanna,” one of the e-mails said, according to the police report.
Police said Morgan may now be targeting Wesleyan University and Jews in particular.
Evidence “suggests that Mr. Morgan may be focused on the Wesleyan University campus as well as the Jewish community,” Middletown Police Chief Lynn Baldoni said at a news conference Thursday. “Investigators have been in contact with Wesleyan University and leaders of the Jewish community, urging both to be extra vigilant.”
And thats the latest news on the Wesleyan University murder suspect Stephen Morgan.
Tags: hate crime, Johanna Justin-Jinich, murder, shooting, stalker, Stepehn Morgan, Wesleyan University shooting
May 7th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Universities should be held liable for the antisemitism that they incubate and advertise.
Any university allowing anti-Jewish hate groups to rally, advertise, recruit, produce films, etc, should be held accountable as accessories to murder or conspiracy to incite hate and violence.
Hold them responsible. Also hold the internet sites, newspapers, radio and television that promote the same responsible.
May 8th, 2009 at 8:52 am
The suspect in the shooting of a Wesleyan University student will be arraigned Friday morning after surrendering to police without incident Thursday evening in neighboring Meriden, authorities said.
Police have arrested Stephen Morgan in the shooting death of Johanna Justin-Jinich.
Stephen Morgan has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Johanna Justin-Jinich at a Middletown bookstore on Wednesday and is being held on a $10 million bond, Middletown Chief Lynn Baldoni said. Morgan turned himself in at the Meriden Police Department at 9:14 p.m., according to Baldoni, and was transferred to Middletown.
Police spoke briefly to Morgan immediately after the shooting, a law enforcement source told CNN on Thursday.
He was one of several people who gathered Wednesday afternoon outside Broad Street Books after the Wesleyan junior was shot to death in the bookstore’s cafe, the source said. Morgan gave his name to investigators who spoke with him, the source said.
At that early stage of the investigation, the source said, police had no reason to suspect Morgan.
May 8th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Police told the community and university on Thursday that Morgan might have been targeting Wesleyan University and the town’s Jewish residents.
“Evidence uncovered overnight suggests that Mr. Morgan may be focused on the Wesleyan community campus as well as the Jewish community,” said Baldoni, who did not elaborate.
A statement from the university alleged that Morgan had written threats against “Wesleyan and/or its Jewish students” in his personal journals.
Justin-Jinich was a student at Wesleyan and was Jewish, according to the Middletown mayor, but there was another connection between her and her alleged killer, authorities said.
In July 2007, the woman filed a harassment complaint against Morgan while the two were taking the same six-week summer course at New York University, school spokesman John Beckman told reporters.
The complaint, in which Justin-Jinich said she was receiving harassing e-mails and phone calls from Morgan, was filed with the university’s public safety department toward the end of the course, Beckman said.
The public safety department brought in the New York Police Department and, after conversations with Morgan and Justin-Jinich, the woman declined to follow up or press charges, Beckman said.
Beckman said the two were not living in the same student residence house during the course.
May 16th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
The picture with the blue background is not Stephen P. Morgan. It is Stephen L. Morgan, a professor at Cornell. Please take that picture off this blog.