Justin L. Mack and Hayleigh Colombo

(Lafayette, Ind.) Journal and Courier

Shooting was reported a little after noon in basement of campus%27 Electrical Engineering Building

School was on lockdown for more than an hour%3B classes were canceled until Thursday

Students gathered last night for candlelight vigil in 2-degree weather

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Authorities continue to look for a motive in a Purdue University shooting in which one teaching assistant targeted another.

Andrew Boldt, 21, a senior electrical engineering major from the Milwaukee suburb of West Bend, Wis., died Tuesday in the first on-campus shooting at the public university in more than 17 years.

Cody Cousins, 23, also a senior electrical engineering major from the Dayton suburb of Centerville, Ohio, was taken into custody shortly after the shooting and is being held without bond in connection with the homicide, Tippecanoe County Jail officials said.

Purdue police chief John Cox said Tuesday that Cousins did not resist when arrested and was not armed but he also was not forthcoming with information. Criminal charges against Cousins have not yet been filed; he has an initial hearing at 2 p.m. Thursday.

"I'm in shock. I'm confused. I don't want to believe that this actually has happened," said Thomas Gräber, a friend and former classmate who now attends Vincennes University in Indiana. "Cody is a very nonviolent person, politically and personally. He would never tell a story about getting in a fight."

Tuesday's shooting was reported a little after noon ET, triggering campuswide alerts via public address system and text messages to shelter in place. Those measures remained in place until about 1:15 p.m. after police confirmed that a solo shooter was involved.

Classes were canceled at the university of about 30,000 students about an hour northwest of Indianapolis for the remainder of the day and Wednesday, but portions of the Electrical Engineering Building opened at noon Wednesday for students, faculty and staff to retrieve their belongings. All university students and employees are being offered counseling.

Those who knew each of the men described them as high-achieving students without discipline problems. They were teaching assistants in different courses, and but each course was taught by Professor David G. Meyer of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

"He would just go out of his way to help me with anything," said one of Boldt's classmates, Niveah Tefillah Abraham. Boldt was an Eagle Scout and was expected to graduate this year.

Boldt's mother told the president of Marquette University High School, where her son had graduated in 2010, that their family didn't wake up in the morning expecting their son to be the victim of a one-in-a-million shooting. The family declined to speak with reporters.

Cousins was a 2008 graduate of Springboro High School, and "one of the smartest guys I knew," said Sydney Albrecht of Dayton.

Hundreds of students gathered at Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil in 2-degree temperatures and inside at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center for a memorial service.

"We're all engineering students, so it kind of hits close to home," said Katherine Frangos, 21.

Contributing: Ron Wilkins, David Smith, Emily Campion, (Lafayette, Ind.) Journal and Courier