TUCSON, Ariz. — A jury has been empaneled for the trial of a former University of Arizona graduate student accused of fatally shooting a professor in 2022 after he was banned from campus over harassment complaints.
Murad Dervish is facing seven charges, including first-degree murder in the death of Thomas Meixner, who was shot several times inside a building on Oct. 5, 2022.
Meixner, 52, had headed the university’s Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences and was an expert on desert water issues. Dervish, 48, had been a graduate student in the hydrology program before he was expelled.
Campus police said the shooting occurred in the Harshbarger Building, which houses the hydrology department.
According to a criminal complaint, a flyer with a photo of Dervish was distributed to university staff in February 2022 with instructions to call 911 if he ever entered the building.
The complaint also stated that Dervish was not allowed on school grounds, and that he had been the subject of several reports of harassment and threats against staff members who worked at Harshbarger.
Lawyers for the Meixner family said Dervish had threatened the professor in the past and entered the building without being stopped or followed.
University President Robert Robbins said campus police tried twice to charge Dervish before the shooting and referred the complaints to Pima County prosecutors. But they were told there wasn’t enough evidence.
Dervishes fled the shooting. But he was arrested after his car was stopped on a highway more than 120 miles (193 kilometers) northwest of Tucson. A loaded 9mm handgun was found in the vehicle and the ammunition matched shell casings found at the scene, the complaint said.
Meixner’s family filed a $9 million claim in March 2023 — a precursor to a lawsuit — saying there were numerous ways the university failed to protect him and the rest of the community.
The school and the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s three public universities, reached a $2.5 million settlement with Meixner’s family last January.
Dervish’s trial is expected to last two weeks.