Irving PD: North Lake College shooter left behind suicide note

IRVING, Texas - Police say the man who shot and killed a North Lake Community College student before killing himself left behind a suicide note. They haven't revealed where that note was found or what it said.

The shooting happened Wednesday morning around 11:30 a.m. The campus was placed on lockdown immediately afterwards and will not open again until Monday.

Police said 21-year-old Adrian Victor Torres shot and killed 20-year-old Janeera Nickol Gonzalez inside a common study area.

The Gonzalez family said she and Torres never dated, but they are now learning from her friends she may have rejected his advances. Her brother said she never mentioned any problems and probably didn't think the situation was serious until it was too late for her.

For the first time since Wednesday's shooting, students were allowed back on campus Thursday to get some of their belongings left behind in the chaos of evacuating.

One student didn't want his face shown but says he was sitting on a bench with Janeera when Torres walked up to her and shot her before walking to another part of the school and killing himself.

“He said, ‘Do you know why I'm here?’ and then three shots were fired rapidly,” he said. “And I saw the flash, and I heard the fire. And I immediately knew that it was gunshots.”

The man says he took off not knowing if he would be next.

“Kids are coming out the classroom, and I'm telling them, ‘Get out the building! Get out the building! There's shots fired!’” he recalled. “They obviously didn't believe me. They thought I was joking.”

Police found Torres dead with a handgun nearby in a locker room shower stall in a different building.

Almost immediately, word reached Janeera’s family that there was a shooting at her school.

Not knowing who the shooting victim was, the family rushed to the school and sent frantic messages on social media to ask if anyone had seen her.

But as parents were reuniting with their kids, the Gonzalez family quickly realized they were the only ones left.

“We started putting two and two together,” said Juan Gonzalez, Janeera’s father. “And I said, ‘Look, tell me something or I'm going to go in there and look for my daughter.’ My daughter didn't deserve to die this way.”

Janeera’s family says she was a graduate of Irving High School, a member of the National Honor Society and was just two weeks shy of getting her associate's degree with dreams of going into psychology or becoming a teacher.

“Somebody took her future from her,” said her brother, Johnny Gonzalez. “She'll never have a real career. She'll never buy her first car. She'll never buy a house. She'll never have kids.”

Torres was a former student at North Lake. Janeera’s family said they had never heard of him before but say friends have since come forward to say that Torres took perhaps too much of an interest in her after she recently dated one of his friends.

“They thought he was just a weird guy. He's not all there in the head. He just has a crush on her,” Johnny said. “But in his head, he was in a relationship with my sister.”

With Torres now dead, the family may never get answers or justice.

“She gave everybody a chance,” Johnny said. “And I'm guessing that's why she never really thought this guy was a threat.”

A vigil is planned for Gonzalez next Monday at Irving High School starting at 7:30 p.m.

The family is raising money for her funeral at www.gofundme.com/janeeras-funeral.