Zimmerman

Area college officials remain at a loss to explain why a 62-year-old part-time librarian shot and killed a fellow staffer Monday in the Northeast Lakeview College library on Pat Booker Road.

Shots rang out at about 2:15 p.m. Monday, sending dozens of students and faculty fleeing the building. Inside, Alan Godin, a part-time librarian, reportedly sat down and placed his weapon on a table and waited for authorities to arrive after he allegedly shot and killed 37-year-old Devin Zimmerman, an instructor and full-time librarian with faculty.

Dr. Eric Reno, NLC president, said the event has shocked and saddened his staff.

“Our heart goes out to the family of Mr. Zimmerman,” said Reno, accompanied by Leo Zuniga, Alamo Community College District associate vice chancellor of communications, and Kathleen Johnson-Hodge, NLC communications director. “It’s a tragedy nobody could have predicted.”

The campus was immediately put on lockdown and police arrived within minutes, Reno said. Classes resumed Wednesday after students and faculty were sent home Monday and classes were canceled Tuesday as well.

Reno said NLC and ACC officials were going to reassess the situation Tuesday. Although classes were canceled, the school remained open, he said, in order to have trained counselors available to any student or faculty member.

Reno said he knew both men, and that he knew of no prevailing reason or motive that might have driven Godin to shoot Zimmerman. Reno said Godin was not expected for a work shift until 5 p.m., adding that he did not know how long Godin was in the college building before the 2:15 p.m. shooting.

Godin was an actor and contributor to the Boerne Community Theatre, where he was scheduled to play the lead role of Barney Cashman in “The Last Of The Red-Hot Lovers,” a playset for Nov. 7-22 run at the community theater. The play was being directed by Godin’s wife, Christine, who is dean of learning resources in the Northwest Vista College library, another ACC campus in San Antonio.

Derek Adair, 24, a NLC business administrations major, said he was seated in the Internet Café about 20 feet away when he heard “four or five shots ring out.”

“I could see flashes of white out of the corner of my eye. People were running, there was a lot of screaming; I ran out and called 9-1-1,” he said. “I headed for the door with about 30 other people.”

Troy Swansen, 21, was reading a book in the library when the shooting started.

“I heard several gunshots, like three, four, then five,” he said. “I was like, ‘That can’t be gunshots,’ then you (hear them) and it’s like, ‘yeah, its gunshots.’”

Swansen said he cleared out a back door of the library and immediately called 9-1-1. “I was the first one out of there. It seemed like about 15 seconds after I got off the phone you could hear sirens coming,” he said. “The staff is more in shock than anyone; many of them know the shooter and the victim.”

Zimmerman joined North-east Lakeview in the fall of 2007 after a stint as information literacy coordinator at Texas State University in San Marcos.