Monday night, a local university made national news when when a former Edinboro University of Pennsylvania student was shot off of the university’s campus.

A current Edinboro student, Trey D. Gunter, has been charged with accounts of criminal homide and murder of the second degree, according to court documents.

Some Gannon students from the Erie area experienced their Twitter and Facebook feeds blowing up as EUP was put on lockdown and very few people had any idea what was going on. GoErie was one of the first to report on it, followed by ABC and CNN.

Living in downtown Erie, many students are used to hearing about off-campus shootings, but we hardly ever hear about shootings involving students or former students

While Edinboro may be a decent sized town, it is by no means a city, certainly not one where this kind of crime happens often. Aside from maybe a few shop lifters at Wal-Mart, it’s usually pretty safe.

If this kind of shooting could happen at EUP, of all places, it could happen almost anywhere.

One of the positive things about Gannon’s campus is that even though it’s located in downtown Erie, the campus area is generally safe.

But that doesn’t mean you should let your guard down, especially at night.

While Edinboro will more than likely increase its security, even though the incident did not take place on campus, hopefully some of the other universities will do the same. Student safety should be a top priority for any campus.

In the meantime, try not to be out  by yourself when it gets too dark, even if that’s at 4 p.m.