Student with big dreams found dead in dorm

HOUSTON (KTRK) — A Rice University student is being remembered after she was killed in her dorm room Monday.

Police say the shooting was a murder-suicide.

On the first day of the fall semester, Andrea Rodriguez, a third-year political science major with big dreams, was gunned down in her dorm room at Jones College by a young man she had been dating.

Members of his department said they were in shock.

“The people who helped her, the people who were her teachers, the people who talked to her about things related to her work, there were so many people who were connected to her. At least my department is really in shock,” De La Cruz said.

Rodriguez’s friends said she was determined to succeed.

After humble beginnings at her local community college in Maryland, she spent a summer at Johns Hopkins University before enrolling at Rice last January, where she quickly joined student government and served as a faculty advisor in the dorm where she died.

“It was shocking. I feel very sad for my friends at Jones,” said freshman Diego Delgado.

For Delgado and his friend, the gun violence has shaken their sense of serenity at a college known for its lush, peaceful environment.

But they said the university responded quickly.

“I found a lot of support from my classmates and counselors here,” Ghoyh Malembi said. “They all provided a safe space for people to come and talk about the situation.”

Houston police investigate as the campus struggles to find a solution without Rodriguez, a young woman with big dreams.

“There were graduate students who were saying they felt horrible when they saw him, that they recognized his name, that they had taught him last year, that they had taught him last semester and that they were going to teach him this semester,” De La Cruz said.

The identity of the shooter has not been released, but he was not a student.

Investigators believe he killed himself after shooting Rodriguez.

University police said they found a note believed to have been left by the shooter.