UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, September 18, 1996
7A
Penn State student shot, killed on campus
Town resident opens fire on college crowd
The Associated Press
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - A 19-year-old woman with a Mohawk haircut spread out a tarp in the middle of the Penn State University campus yesterday and opened fire with a rifle, killing one student and wounding another before she was tackled while trying to reload.
Jillian Robbins was hospitalized in serious condition with a stab wound suffered in a struggle with the student who knocked her down. Robbins is a hunter with Army Reserve training who acquaintances said had a history of mental problems and was known as Crazy Jill.
No immediate charges were filed against Robbins, who is a longtime resident of State College but not a student.
Police gave no motive for the
shooting and said Robbins did not know her victims.
Robbins positioned herself in front of the student union and fired at least five shots from her rifle, a Mauser with a telescopic sight, about 9:30 a.m., police said. Hundreds of frightened students and faculty scattered across the lawn outside the Hetzel Union Building, one of the campus' busiest areas.
Aerospace engineering student Brendon Malovell noticed smoke, ran and tackled Robbins as she was putting in a second ammunition clip, police said.
As the two struggled, Robbins pulled a knife from her purse and tried to stab Malovrh, instead stabbing herself in the leg, police said. Malovrh quickly took off his belt and fashioned a tourniquet on Robbins' leg.
In front of them lay dead Melanie Spalla, 19, of Altoona, Pa. Nicholas Mensah, 27, of Philadelphia, had been shot once in the abdomen. He was in stable condition. A book in one student's backpack stopped a bullet.
"This is a high-traffic area, where lots of people ride their buses. It's
reaky to know this happened here. But I guess this is where you want to do it if you want to kill someone," said Jessica Ohrum, 20, of East Berlin.
Acquaintances who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Robbins had a history of mental problems and had once spent time in a mental hospital. They said that she had been married and divorced in the past year and that she had tried to commit suicide last month. Friends said she hoped to become an artist.
Fellow employees at a diner where she had worked a year ago called her Crazy Jill, an acquaintance said.
Campus Police Chief David Stormer said Robbins had Army Reserve training, and a friend said she liked to hunt.
About 40,000 students attend the university in State College, a town of about 40,000 permanent residents in the center of the state.
There has been only one other slaying on campus in the school's 186-year history: In 1969, a graduate student was stabbed in a library. Her killer was never found.
The Associated Press
Superman heads to altar
NEW YORK — After almost 60 years of on-and-off dating, Lois Lane and Clark Kent — alias Superman — are getting married next month.
The super-wedding will follow a reconciliation between Superman and Miss Lane, who began dating during the FDR administration. Lois, tired of playing second fiddle to Superman's career, had dumped the Man of Steel back on Valentine's Day.
"Since their engagement in 1990, some things have happened to postpone the wedding — like Superman's death," DC Comics editor Mike Carln said yesterday. "We felt like it was time something good happened to Superman."
The Oct. 9 comic, titled "Superman: The Wedding Album," was timed to coincide with the Oct. 6 ceremony on ABC-TV's "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman."
Before the honeymoon, Superman will encounter a new rival: father-in-law Sam Lane. "Fathers-in-law sometimes do have certain powers," Carlin said. "But if Superman came back from the dead, he can put up with Sam."
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