{
  "id": "2025-12-09-kentucky-state-university-young-hall-shooting",
  "slug": "kentucky-state-university-young-hall-shooting-2025-12-09",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Kentucky State University",
    "shortName": "KSU",
    "state": "KY",
    "type": "hbcu",
    "alertSystemName": "BRED Alerts",
    "enrollment": 2300
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2025-12-09",
    "type": "active-shooter",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "resolution": "suspect-in-custody",
    "headline": "Young Hall incident; suspect apprehended; no ongoing threat",
    "summary": "Kentucky State University [published a statement](https://www.kysu.edu/news/2025/12/statement-from-ksu.php) after an incident in Young Hall. Full official text recovered.",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 1,
      "injured": 1
    },
    "outcome": "Fox was pronounced dead at Frankfort Regional Medical Center at 4:33 p.m. EST. The second student was hospitalized in critical condition and later stabilized. Bard was initially charged with murder and first-degree assault but the Franklin County grand jury declined to indict on December 23, 2025, accepting his self-defense argument.",
    "headlinePublic": "Young Hall incident; suspect apprehended; no ongoing threat"
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "update",
      "timestampApprox": "Official institution statement recovered 2026-07-26",
      "channel": "website",
      "verbatimText": "Kentucky State University is actively managing a campus incident that occurred earlier today in Whitney M. Young Hall, a residence hall on the south side of campus. The suspect has been apprehended, and there is no ongoing threat to the campus community. University leadership, Campus Police, and local law enforcement are coordinating the response and ensuring the safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff.\n\nAdditional information will be shared through official Kentucky State University channels as it becomes available.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.kysu.edu/news/2025/12/statement-from-ksu.php",
      "sourceDescription": "Official institution public statement",
      "annotations": [
        "Verbatim from official page; prior unconfirmed reconstructions replaced."
      ],
      "characterCount": 540,
      "confidence": "high"
    }
  ],
  "context": "On the afternoon of December 9, 2025 (during final-exam week) a [confrontation between Jacob Lee Bard and a crowd of KSU students escalated near Whitney M. Young Jr. Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Kentucky_State_University_shooting), the residence hall at 106 South University Drive on Kentucky State University's Frankfort campus. According to law enforcement, Bard, 48, of Evansville, Indiana, had come to campus with his 18-year-old son and a campus police officer to move belongings from the son's dorm room when the trio was approached by a group of students. Bard, his son, and the officer attempted to leave but were [surrounded and attacked](https://abcnews.go.com/US/people-injured-reported-shooting-kentucky-state-university/story?id=128256648). Bard drew a handgun and opened fire, killing 19-year-old De'Jon Fox of Indianapolis and critically wounding a second student. Frankfort Police responded to reports of an [active aggressor at approximately 3:10 p.m. EST](https://www.npr.org/2025/12/09/g-s1-101503/kentucky-state-university-shooting-frankfort), and by the time officers arrived, KSU campus police had already taken Bard into custody. The campus was placed under shelter-in-place and remained locked down for several hours while officers swept Whitney Young Hall. Fox was pronounced dead at Frankfort Regional Medical Center at 4:33 p.m. EST. Bard was initially charged with murder and first-degree assault. On December 23, 2025, a Franklin County grand jury [accepted his self-defense claim and returned no indictment](https://www.foxnews.com/us/kentucky-state-university-shooting-suspect-charged-murder-parent-student), a rare outcome in a fatal campus shooting. The case underscored ongoing concerns about [HBCU campus safety](https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/south-carolina-campus-safety-hbcu-political/article_cfefabf2-c778-43a8-9998-1b5a666b8dbb.html) two years after the wave of HBCU bomb threats that disrupted KSU and dozens of peers in 2022.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "The suspect was a parent of an enrolled KSU student, not a student himself, an unusual perpetrator profile for a fatal campus shooting",
    "The Franklin County grand jury declined to indict on December 23, 2025, accepting Bard's self-defense claim, the rare campus shooting where the shooter avoided trial",
    "The shooting occurred during final-exam week and at Whitney Young Hall, KSU's main residence hall named for civil-rights leader and KSU alumnus Whitney M. Young Jr.",
    "KSU campus police had already taken the suspect into custody before Frankfort Police arrived, an unusually fast on-scene resolution"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "1 dead and 1 injured in a shooting at Kentucky State University in Frankfort (CNN)",
      "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/09/us/kentucky-state-university-frankfort-shooting",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Suspect in custody after Kentucky State University shooting leaves 1 dead (NPR)",
      "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/12/09/g-s1-101503/kentucky-state-university-shooting-frankfort",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Parent of Kentucky State University student arrested in deadly campus shooting (ABC News)",
      "url": "https://abcnews.go.com/US/people-injured-reported-shooting-kentucky-state-university/story?id=128256648",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Student killed, suspect in custody in Kentucky State University shooting (Al Jazeera)",
      "url": "https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/10/student-killed-suspect-in-custody-in-kentucky-state-university-shooting",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Kentucky State University shooting suspect charged with murder is parent of a student (Fox News)",
      "url": "https://www.foxnews.com/us/kentucky-state-university-shooting-suspect-charged-murder-parent-student",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "2025 Kentucky State University shooting (Wikipedia)",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Kentucky_State_University_shooting",
      "type": "encyclopedia"
    },
    {
      "title": "Statement from Kentucky State University",
      "url": "https://www.kysu.edu/news/2025/12/statement-from-ksu.php",
      "type": "official-archive",
      "accessDate": "2026-07-26"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "active-shooter",
    "hbcu",
    "kentucky",
    "fatality",
    "finals-week",
    "residence-hall",
    "self-defense",
    "bred-alerts"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-14",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-26",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}