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Report: UArizona missed red flags regarding suspect accused of professor's death

The report, commissioned by university faculty members, comes after the October 2022 murder of Dr. Thomas Meixner.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Nearly four months after the murder of a University of Arizona professor, a new 30-page report said university officials missed red flags on the suspect accused of his death.

The independent report from the University of Arizona General Faculty Committee on University Safety for all said the university had a “glaring institutional failure” when it comes to its history of safety for faculty and staff members.

“There needs to be institutional reform. A cultural commitment to serious state-of-the-art risk management and mitigation,” said Dr. Laila Hudson, Chairwoman of the University of Arizona faculty.

The report, commissioned by university faculty members, comes after the October 2022 murder of Dr. Thomas Meixner.

Meixner, the department chair of the university’s Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences Department, was shot and killed on campus.

Former student Murad Dervish is charged with first-degree murder in Mexiner’s death.

"The lack of a central risk management system and the fragmentation of responsibilities related to violence risks resulted in an institutional focus on legal risks and the neglect of violence risks," said Hudson.

According to the report, for nearly a year, Dervish harassed and threatened members of the department.

The report said some faculty members who were scared for their safety bought bulletproof vests, switched offices, moved from their homes, kept non-lethal weapons on campus, and loaded weapons at home.

The report said on October 5, 2022, Dervish allegedly sought out four members of the department that that he previously harassed but came across Meixner first. 

The report also points out a lack of communication to notify faculty members in a timely manner about Dervish's reported harassment while attending San Diego State University.

According to the report in January 2022, University of Arizona police were made aware of an investigation from SDSUPD involving Dervish sending racist and anti-Semitic emails to faculty members.

The report also included a timeline of incidents involving Dervish.

In May 2022, the report said the Pima County Attorney’s Office closed a harassment case against Dervish after UAPD failed to file a criminal complaint.

In September 2022, less than a month before Mexiner’s death, UAPD filed a second criminal report against Dervish for 20 counts of harassment involving two workers.

According to Meixner’s family, it wasn’t seen by prosecutors until after Meixner’s death.

The report said UAPD never notified prosecutors of the urgency of the case and also never mentioned the May 2022 case against Dervish.

The Pinal County Attorney's Office confirmed the report's findings in the following statement to 12News:

“PCAO can confirm that no attempts were made by the law enforcement agency to link the two cases together, to provide any context, or to bring this to our attention with any sense of urgency. The reports in April and September were mailed in a normal batch of campus misdemeanors, which meant the reports went into the queue at the bottom of the COVID backlog of non-arrest misdemeanor cases, as is standard practice.”

As part of its recommendations, the report calls on the university to fix issues with trust, provide a system to deal with violence and risk management, cut red tape to service, and provide effective methods to address safety concerns.

Hudson said the campus and Meixner’s colleagues are still trying to process and understand the tragedy.

She said while there’s still a long way to go to fixing the problem of communications on campus after the tragedy, she’s encouraged to see signs that more people are looking to prevent it from happening again.

 “It’s still early days, and I think we will have plenty of opportunities to collaborate across all different sectors of the university,” said Hudson.

A final report from the faculty members is expected to be released in late Spring 2023.

The University of Arizona is currently conducting an outside investigation into Meixner’s death.

12News reached out to the University of Arizona for comment on the faculty’s report and to receive a timeline on when their report would be completed. So far, we have not received a response.

Murad Dervish's trial is scheduled to get underway in Fall 2023.

 

   

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