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The witness told police he had passed Murad Dervish, who was since been indicted on first-degree murder charges, in the hallway outside the office just moments before the shooting. The witness, who was just feet away from the wounded Meixner as he attempted to close the office door, was grazed in the knee by a bullet ricochet, according to UA police reports released to the Star.

Also, multiple students and staff members reported seeing the former University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ student lurking around the John W. Harshbarger Building and the professor’s office moments before they said he opened fire, shooting and killing the professor, police records show. They described Dervish wearing multiple layers of clothing and at some point donning a face mask. One said he was carrying a white plastic bag in his hands.

One student told police she was so rattled by seeing Dervish that she ran to a professor’s office, where they locked and barricaded the door, turned the lights off and called 911 to report that Dervish was unlawfully in the building, according to the police reports.

On Oct. 5, a UA employee who worked in the Harshbarger Building, which houses the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, had sought out Meixner, the department head, to talk to him about a report, police records say. He saw Meixner was speaking with two students after teaching his class and walked down the hallway to wait in the main office since he didn’t want to interrupt.

The employee notes that the door to the room where Meixner was talking to the students was slightly propped open by a door stop and the door is equipped with a keypad entry. The pin numbers were changed as a precaution in February after Dervish, a student in the department and a teaching assistant, had been terminated from his TA job and expelled from school, police reports say.

As the employee made his way down the hallway, he told police that he noticed a man walking toward the room where Meixner was. The employee said he turned back around before entering the office and saw Dervish then standing in front of the room Mexiner was in, police records say.

The employee then heard one to two loud bangs, describing them as being consistent with loud firecrackers. Moments later, Meixner entered the main office and attempted to shut the door as Dervish tried to force himself inside, the employee told police.

The employee noticed that Meixner had blood on his shirt and was having problems securing the door, possibly due to another door stop that was preventing it from being shut. Dervish was able to overpower Meixner and enter the room, holding a black automatic handgun and pointing it at Meixner’s upper torso, the witness told police.

Dervish then fired one to two rounds while Meixner was still standing, the witness said. The employee said Meixner then fell to the ground and Dervish fired one more shot and ran away.

During the shooting, the last bullet fired hit the ground, ricocheted and grazed the employee’s left knee, the reports say. According to the employee, it was not a serious wound. Three UA staff members were in the area where the shooting took place, but were hiding under desks or behind chairs, the reports state. UA staffers in the office began administering first aid and tried to comfort Meixner as they waited for medical help, the police reports state.

Another employee in the office had been returning from lunch when she heard the gunshots and hid under her desk. She said she knew who did this as Dervish had been harassing the department ever since he got a bad grade on a test in the spring, the reports state.

While under her desk, she saw Meixner laying on the ground and attempted to keep him alive while a coworker called the police, police records say. The coworker told police that just moments before she had heard three gunshots, looked up from her desk and saw Meixner walking through the door, yelling “(Expletive), I knew you were going to do this.�

The student who was speaking to Meixner prior to the shooting told police she noticed a man at the door who looked like he was waiting for something. She said he did enter the room but moved back outside the doorway and she no longer saw him, police records say. The student said Meixner did not see the man as the professor was standing with his back to the door.

After they were done speaking, Meixner left the room and the student was looking over her notes when she heard loud shots, approximately three or four, police records say. She hid in the corner of the room and waited for law enforcement.

A police report said 11 spent shell casings from a 9mm gun were recovered at the shooting sites.

After the shooting, UA police officers made their way into the room and rendered aid to Meixner before ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Fire personnel arrived and took him to Banner-University Medical Center, police records say. Meixner had several gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the hospital at about 2:30 p.m. A staff member in Meixner’s office told police they received active shooter training in August after requesting it because of the threats from Dervish.

Before the shooting happened, a graduate student had made eye contact with Dervish and immediately recognized him, police records say. The woman told police that she and her friend went to hide in a professor’s office and called 911 to report that Dervish had been in the building. After hanging up, they heard five or six gunshots, she told police.

This student told police that she had left the school in February and worked remotely because she was so scared of Dervish, police records say. A UA official who oversaw his expulsion appeal decided to work from home for two days due to his threatening emails, according to police reports previously released.

Other students and staff members in the building told police they heard gunshots before they hid or fled in fear, records show. After the UAlerts went out, one student called police and reported he had seen a man who fit Dervish’s description sitting on the ground against the wall next to a garbage can before the shooting. He said Dervish was looking down at the ground and appeared to be “anxious, worn out and strange.�

Another student said she saw Dervish lurking and pacing around the first floor of the Harshbarger building and accidentally bumped into him as she rounded a corner, police records say. She later saw him shooting into the hydrology office with a black full-sized handgun.

Dervish was found three hours later traveling south on ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 85 toward Mexico, 30 miles south of Gila Bend. As officers took him back to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, he told them about how he was expelled and treated unfairly, police records say. He was also heard saying, “what am I gonna do, what did I do.â€�

He told officers he was going to shoot himself in the head after, but could not bring himself to do it, police records say. He also said he had been to prison twice and attended rehab for alcohol and took a class about alternatives to violence while there.

While being interviewed, Dervish had made spontaneous statements such as, “‘I wish I could start this day over ... I just can’t believe what happened ... there’s a lot of evidence against me ... I shouldn’t drink that doesn’t help either,’� police records say.

A loaded 9mm handgun was found in his vehicle, police reports state.

When officers conducted a search of Dervish’s house, they found numerous empty vodka bottles, police records show. In a previous ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ story, Dervish’s father had said he had an issue with alcohol.

Dervish also told officers he wished they could shoot him and get it over with and if there was a death penalty in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, police records say.

A former neighbor of Dervish told investigators that Dervish had told her in September that he was going to need a good defense attorney, without further explaining why.

Since October 2021, Dervish, who was a graduate student at the time, had ongoing issues with the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. Authorities said the problems began over a grade he received in one of his classes. Due to these issues, Dervish was dismissed from his degree program and his employment as a graduate student a month later, records show. He was also ordered not to have any further contact with several UA employees and not to be on campus. One professor received a court ordered injunction against harassment, but the papers were never served to Dervish.

Dervish had blamed the department members for his dismissal, and harassed and sent threatening emails and text messages to multiple professors. Despite being issued a no contact order by the UA, Dervish continued to harass staff members with threatening and racist emails and texts, police reports say.

Dervish has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited possessor, endangerment and burglary. He is being held without bond at the Pima County jail.