The Episcopal Church in Mississippi posted the following confirmation on Facebook at 1:32 p.m. on September 14:
Dear Friends,
It has been confirmed that the professor killed in the shooting at Delta State University is Dr. Ethan Schmidt, a parishioner at Calvary Church in Cleveland. Please keep Calvary’s rector, The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky, the congregation, the community and Dr. Schmidt’s family in your prayers.
We will share more information as it becomes available.
The suspected shooter, Shannon Lamb, also an instructor at Delta State, is dead after an apparent suicide. It is believed he shot and killed Amy Prentiss, with whom he had been living.
Remembrances, from the Missouri News Tribune:
The slain professor directed the first-year seminar program and specialized in Native American and colonial history, said Don Allan Mitchell, an English professor at the school, who called him “a gentleman in every sense of the word.”
“Dr. Ethan Schmidt was a terrific family man, a good friend, a true son of Peabody, Kansas, and his beloved Emporia State University,” he said.
One of his history professors at Emporia State University described him as one of the “brightest students” she’d ever taught.
“He was a super competent human being. He was president of his fraternity, in student government. He was an absolutely delightful student,” said Karen Manners Smith.
King, one of the students who was in Jobe Hall when the shooting happened, attended the same Episcopal church as Schmidt. King was studying history, and Schmidt was his adviser.
“I looked up to the man,” King said.