James Eric Davis Jr, 19 (pictured), who is charged with shooting and killing his parents on Friday, March 2, had escaped from an area hospital just a few hours before
A 19-year-old student accused of killing his parents inside his Central Michigan University dorm room last week Had escaped from an area hospital a few hours before.
According to Isabella County Dispatch recordings archived on Broadcastify.com, James Eric Davis Jr fled from MidMichigan Medical Center on Friday, March 2, around 3am.
Davis Jr had been taken to hospital after having two odd interactions with police in the preceding hours.
The teenager was arraigned on Tuesday in the Friday slayings of James Davis Sr, 48, and Diva Davis, 47.
In the radio recordings, around 3.10am, police are heard telling dispatchers that hospital workers last saw Davis Jr heading ‘towards the woods, north of the helipad’, according to Michigan Live.
One voice on the recordings advises that hospital staff described Davis Jr. as having ‘mental issues.’
Then, at about 3.16am, an Isabella County Sheriff’s deputy is heard notifying dispatchers that he has located Davis Jr near a landscaping business a little more than half a mile from the hospital.
Police had brought Davis Jr to the hospital to begin with at about 1.30am after they saw him sitting with luggage in the lobby of CMU’s Campbell Hall.
Davis Jr made statements that he was under the influence of drugs and police took him to the emergency room.
Davis Jr, 19, seen on a video, appeared in the courtroom of Isabella County Trial Court in Michigan for his arraignment in the killings of his parents at Central Michigan University
After he was brought back to the hospital, he was released to the custody of his parents, James Davis Jr and Dina Davis (right). The couple took Davis Jr (left) back to his dorm room to help him pack for spring break
A few hours earlier, the 19-year-old had approached a community policing officer, claiming someone was trying to kill him. An investigation proved he was not the subject of a valid threat.
Later on the morning of March 2, hospital staff discharged Davis Jr into the care of his parents – who are from the Chicago suburb of Plainfield – and they took their son to his fourth-floor dorm room to help him pack for spring break.
Surveillance footage and witnesses revealed the teen later left the hall and went to his family’s vehicle, where he apparently retrieved his dad’s handgun.
He then used his CMU ID to return to the residence hall, police have said, where he shot and killed his parents.
Dressed in a blue hospital gown and hooked to machines monitoring his vital signs, Davis Jr at appeared in Isabella County Trial Court via video on Tuesday as he was arraigned from McLaren Central Michigan Hospital.
Frequently during Tuesday afternoon’s hearing, Davis Jr softly traced an index finger between his nose and upper lip. He also rubbed his chin often while listening to questions from Judge Paul Chamberlain.
When asked by Chamberlain if he understood the charges or was able to hear the judge, Davis Jr quietly responded ‘yes.’
Davis Jr did appear confused when asked if he wanted court-appointed defense attorney Joshua Blanchard to represent him. Chamberlain kept Blanchard as his lawyer for the time being.
The judge also lowered Davis Jr’s initial $3million bond, setting it at $1.25million.
Davis Jr’s older brother Russell Matthew Davis (right), 27, said the 19-year-old (left) is not a ‘villain’ for killing their parents
Russell took to Facebook on Saturday, saying he still loves his brother
Davis Jr’s parents had just picked him up from a hospital Friday morning, where he was brought for suspected drug abuse a day earlier after campus officers said he was acting erratically, according to police. They took him to his room in Campbell Hall to pack up for spring break when they were shot with a gun that belonged to Davis Sr.
The 48-year-old married father-of-three had served for many years in the Illinois Army National Guard was was an Iraq War veteran.
Authorities have not said whether drugs were found in Davis Jr’s system or if the gun used in the shootings was his father’s service weapon.
A day after the double homicide, the 19-year-old’s older brother came to his defense on social media, writing that Davis Jr was not a ‘villain.’
The couple were killed about 9am in the Campbell Hall dom on the Central Michigan University campus in Mt Pleasant
Authorities say Davis Jr (left) used his father’s gun to kill his parents. Davis Sr (right) was a police officer in Bellwood, Illinois
Russell Matthew Davis, 27, a doctoral divinity student and a member of the Church of God in Christ denomination, announced his parents’ death on Facebook and said that he still loved his brother, despite the tragedy.
‘Never thought I’d have to post this type of post… but unfortunately the news is true. My mom and dad both rest from their life of labor and stress in a very tragic event. It’s so surreal, I’m in shock and even in denial… it’s a hard pill to swallow, a heavy load to bear,’ Russell wrote.
Russell went on to say that he still loved his brother.
‘I want him safe, supported and prayed for just like my sister Alexis Davis and I,’ Russell said.
He had a special message to ‘the media and opinionated people’: ‘Please don’t make a villain out of my brother…that is NOT who he is… and despite the circumstances, he also lost a mother and father…And I LOVE him. Consider that!’.
It’s still unclear what caused Davis to kill his parents but campus police revealed at a Friday press conference that they had taken him to the hospital the night before the murders for an ‘overdose or bad reaction’ to drugs.
He was discharged from the hospital Friday morning, just half an hour before his parents were killed.
Davis Jr fled after the shooting and was the focus of an intense manhunt involving more than 100 officers.
Police believed the suspect had an ‘overdose or bad reaction’ and took him to McLaren Central Michigan hospital in Mount Pleasant (pictured) the night before the murders
Davis ran north away from the apartment buildings after the shooting before police arrested him early Saturday morning after a 12-hour manhunt
News of the shooting has shocked the college student’s friends and neighbors, who have have told the Chicago Tribune that Davis Jr was a quiet and polite kid from a good and loving family.
‘Junior was a very respectful man, raised by upstanding parents, who would do anything to protect him and his siblings,’ longtime family friend Jordan Murphy said.
‘This is an incredibly tragic event, and I pray for Eric’s other children. This is so incredibly out of character, something went wrong somewhere.’
Murphy also said the slain couple, who had another son and a daughter, were ‘ever-present parents who doted on their children’.
Friday’s shooting caused chaos at the small college town in Michigan.
The school posted to their Facebook on Friday morning about 9.30am, telling students to shelter in place and avoid the area around Campbell Hall while classes were cancelled for the day.
An automated phone message from the school also was sent to students Friday morning.
Friday was the last day of classes for Spring Break, so many parents were headed to the campus to pick students up.
Central Michigan University has about 23,000 students in Mount Pleasant, which is about 70 miles north of Lansing.
Friday was the last day of classes for Spring Break, so many parents were headed to the campus to pick students up.
Friends and neighbors of the suspect have said they are shocked by the shooting and that Davis Jr was a good kid from a loving family