CLEVELAND YSU graduate slain in shooting at Case Western Reserve

The suspect had sued a CWRU employee, but the case had been dismissed.
STAFF/WIRE REPORT
CLEVELAND -- The Case Western Reserve University student killed when a gunman opened fire at its business school was a 1996 graduate of Youngstown State University.
Norman E. Wallace was born and reared in Youngstown but was living in Cleveland at the time of his death.
Arrangements are pending at Black, Phillips and Holden Funeral Home in Youngstown.
Wallace, 30, held a bachelor's degree in finance from YSU and was working toward a master's degree in business administration at Case.
"I feel so bad for the family," said Peter Woodlock, YSU's accounting and finance department chairman. "I was in shock when I heard about the shooting. It hits right at home. You can't put into words the hurt that his family must be feeling.
"It's terrible. I can't believe what went on there. You hear it and you just turn numb."
Sachin Goel, 26, a master's degree student from India, said he was talking with Wallace and another friend on the first floor outside the cafeteria of Case's Weatherhead School of Management when the gunman approached and shot Wallace.
A hospital official said Wallace was shot in the chest.
Goel and his other friend dived under a table, and the gunman fired at them.
"He couldn't get us, and then he again shot at us, and we turned the table and put it in front of us," Goel said.
The suspect
Biswanath Halder, 62, of Cleveland, carrying two guns and wearing camouflage, wandered the halls of the Peter B. Lewis Building, firing hundreds of rounds Friday, Police Chief Edward Lohn said.
Two other people were shot and injured during a seven-hour standoff.
Authorities say Halder was a 1999 CWRU graduate who had sued an employee at the school. The employee was in the building but escaped unhurt, university President Edward Hundert said.
Hundert said the original lawsuit, which accused the employee of having "added and deleted things from a personal Web site" belonging to Halder, was dismissed. Halder had lost an appeal about a month ago.
Halder contended on his Web site that he had served in the Indian army's corp of electrical and mechanical engineers as an office cadet.
He also claims to have attended officers' training school and the Indian Military Academy, as well as having experience in computer programming, designing electricial measuring equipment in Germany, real estate and financial planning.
Police said 93 people were trapped inside the building for hours, hiding in offices, classrooms and closets.
Charges pending
Campbell said prosecutors were determining what charges to file against Halder, who was in police custody Saturday after being treated for a shoulder wound.
Authorities said Halder wore a wig and "a kind of World War II Army helmet" and also had been hit in the bulletproof vest he was wearing by a shot during the standoff.
A man shot in the buttocks and a woman shot in her collarbone were released Saturday after hospital treatment.
A day after the shootings, the rain-soaked campus was nearly deserted. The semester had ended, and most students had already gone home.
Yellow crime-scene tape was strung around the building, which the university closed after the shooting, and a police cruiser guarded the shattered glass back door the gunman broke through.
The building's distinctive design, with hallways that dip and swerve, complicated the job for police, Lohn said.
After a SWAT team finally cornered Halder in a room, he was apprehended without a fight.
Trapped in building
Students and faculty members scrambled to get out of the building after seeing the gunman fire indiscriminately. Those who remained inside stayed in contact with loved ones and co-workers through e-mail and telephone calls.
"We saw the shadowy figure walk by the door," said Gregory Stoup, 38, an economic research director, who along with four other people had barricaded his office door with furniture.
"He was shooting down at the ground, yelling inaudible cries, sort of a high-pitched scream. We could hear the shell casings clinking," Stoup said.
About four hours after the first shots were fired, rescuers began taking people out of the building, and they were reunited with family members waiting at a campus auditorium.
By early evening, two dozen SWAT officers moved inside.