TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Over a month ago University of Arizona Professor Thomas Meixner was shot and killed in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. He was the head of the department, and helped many students, including Justin Headley.
“It was actually several hours after the fact that I actually realized it did happen,” said Justin Headley, a University of Arizona Hydrology and Atmospheric Science student.
Headley was in a class taught by Dr. Meixner moments before the shooting.
It took hours for the reality to set in.
“I did come to believe it actually did happen especially when I heard that our department head had been shot and remembering the description of the suspect that was put out by the alert system I realized then exactly who it was and exactly what had happened because this was someone who was well-known to our department and had been harassing and threatening people for almost a year,” he said.
He remembered getting an alert in February that Murad Durvish had been expelled and was potentially dangerous.
“We never really learned why. We never really learned how big of a threat this person was. And we especially thought that after around March, we thought all this was over,” he said.
Headley is still trying to understand everything that happened and was hurt when the University made the decision to remove the memorial for Dr. Meixner last Tuesday.
“We rebuilt it immediately because they are not going to decide how long we grieve for and how we choose to grieve,” said Headley.
Hoshin Gupta, a professor from the University of Arizona, expressed the disrespect felt by Headley and others from the department in this email.
This is the response they received from the University Administration. David W. Hahn said, “while there is no perfect answer on when to take the step to remove such a memorial, best practices suggest that a month is a reasonable time to balance the comfort that many gain from the memorial’s presence to the perhaps daily reminder that can upset others as they grieve in their own ways.” They said items for the memorial were given to Professor Meixner’s family.
This is their new memorial, and a local indigenous artist Sal Sawakui made a mural for Dr. Meixner over the weekend.
“I was really inspired by it because it didn’t come from a student, it came from a member of the community, the greater Tucson community. That shows how much of an impact Dr. Meixner had on everyone,” said Headley.
He said the memorial is temporary, but a permanent memorial is being planned.
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Reyna Preciado is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2022 after graduating Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Reyna by emailing reyna.preciado@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or Twitter.
