University of Iowa Shootings - The Shooting

The Shooting

On Friday, November 1, 1991, Gang Lu attended a physics and astronomy department meeting in room 208 of Van Allen Hall. A few minutes after the meeting began, Lu shot four members of the department with a .38-caliber revolver.

Christoph K. Goertz, professor of physics and astronomy, was Lu's dissertation chairperson and one of America's leading space plasma physicists. Dwight R. Nicholson, chairman of the physics and astronomy department, was one of Lu's dissertation committee members. Robert A. Smith, associate professor of physics and astronomy, was also on Lu's dissertation committee. Linhua Shan, research investigator in physics and astronomy, was the winner of the Spriestersbach prize. Shan had once been Lu's roommate.

After the shootings at Van Allen Hall, Lu walked three blocks to Jessup Hall. Lu requested to see T. Anne Cleary, the associate vice president for academic affairs. She was the grievance officer at the university. Lu had made several complaints to her about not being nominated for the Spriestersbach prize. Cleary was shot in the head and died the following day at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, a temporary student employee in the grievance office, was shot for reasons unknown. Rodolfo-Sioson survived but was left paralyzed from the neck down. She died from inflammatory breast cancer in 2008.

University President Hunter Rawlings III was another person on Lu's hit list, but was in Columbus, Ohio at the time for the Iowa-Ohio State football game. Gang Lu was found in room 203 of Jessup Hall with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He died shortly after police arrived.