On a tragic Tuesday, January 21, 2014, the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, became the scene of a violent and shocking event. In a basement classroom of the Electrical Engineering building, 21-year-old Andrew Boldt, a dedicated and well-regarded male student and teaching assistant from West Bend, Wisconsin, was targeted and killed. The quiet of the university was shattered around noon by the sounds of gunfire, sending students into a state of fear and confusion.
The assailant was identified as 23-year-old Cody Cousins, another student in the College of Engineering. Witnesses reported that Cousins entered the classroom and intentionally went after Boldt. He proceeded to shoot and stab Boldt multiple times in front of horrified students before calmly leaving the building and surrendering to a police officer who was arriving on the scene. There was no preceding argument or fight, and the attack appeared to be an isolated and deliberate act. An autopsy later revealed the brutal nature of the attack, confirming that Boldt sustained multiple gunshot and stab wounds.
Cody Cousins was immediately taken into custody and booked into the Tippecanoe County Jail on a preliminary charge of murder. He later pleaded guilty to the murder of Andrew Boldt. During his sentencing hearing, Cousins made a chilling statement, confessing, 'I killed Andrew Boldt because I wanted to.' He disavowed earlier claims of mental illness that his defense had put forward, stating that he had lied to the doctors. The judge, calling the murder a 'crime of terror,' sentenced Cousins to the maximum of 65 years in prison.
The tragic story took another turn a month after the sentencing. In October 2014, Cody Cousins was found dead in his prison cell, having taken his own life. The Purdue community, deeply affected by the senseless violence, held vigils to remember Andrew Boldt, a promising student who was posthumously awarded his electrical engineering degree.
