Pima County Attorney addresses red flag laws in regard to UA shooting

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The University of Arizona sent out a letter to students and staff Monday addressing the steps they took before the shooting of Professor Dr. Thomas Meixner.

This letter states in Jan. 2022, former student Murad Dervish was prohibited from university property, entry passwords were changed for rooms he had access to and faculty in the Department of Hydrology & Atmospheric Sciences were moved.

The UArizona also pursued charges against Dervish with the Pima County Attorney’s Office but they declined to move forward.

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover released a statement in response. The statement said the complaints brought to her office did not meet the constitutional standard of proof to file charges.

“The evidence presented to us may have been only a piece of the evidence available, but what was sent to us did not rise to a criminal charge,” said Conover. “Here is the bottom line. There were injunctions against harassment that were granted and never even served. Had we even been able to charge a criminal complaint, it would have been in the same envelope with the injunctions with the constable's office, that was never served.”

She said those laws would provide an opportunity to remove a gun from the hands of those known to present a threat to themselves or others, but a red flag bill failed to pass in Arizona.

“When you have a case like this that has every red flag going off in the books, we don’t have the tools that we need in Arizona, and until we do that, and please believe I am going to be talking about red flag laws a lot in the coming year, until we have that, we lack the tools in Arizona that we need, and I fear these incidents will just keep happening,” said Conover.

She believes the UArizona and the Pima County Attorney’s Office should focus on going forward with the prosecution.

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