Campus Alert Archive
North Lake

Murder-Suicide in the Performance Hall: The North Lake College Stalking Case That Police Initially Reported as Active Shooter

TXshootingemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

At 11:33 AM CDT on May 3, 2017, Irving Police received the first 911 calls reporting shots fired at North Lake College, a community college in Irving, Texas. Within minutes, Irving Police Department issued an active-shooter alert and the campus went into lockdown. Investigators later determined the incident was a targeted murder-suicide: 21-year-old Adrian Victor Torres shot and killed 20-year-old Janeera Nickol Gonzalez in a common study area in the Performance Hall building, then walked to a locker-room shower stall in an adjoining building and shot himself. Gonzalez had reportedly told family she was being stalked by Torres in the weeks before the attack.

Alerts
4
Response
5 min
Killed
1
Injured
0
Institution
North Lake College
Community College · TX
~11,000 studentsDCCCD eConnect
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

4 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimCampus Security Today, quoting the DCCCD Alerts SMS message sent during the North Lake College lockdown134 chars
North Lake College-Intruder Lock-down. Go to nearest room and lock-down. If not at campus STAY AWAY for your own safety (DCCCD Alerts)
The first DCCCD eConnect SMS alert went out at approximately 11:38 AM CDT on May 3, 2017, roughly five minutes after Irving Police received the first 911 call at 11:33 AM CDT
The Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) operated North Lake College and used the eConnect SMS platform for emergency notification across all seven of its campuses
The terse 'Intruder Lock-down' classification differed from a true active-shooter alert — DCCCD's standard 'intruder' template was reused even though Irving Police were responding to reports of gunshots in the Performance Hall
UPDATESMS
Verified verbatimCampus Security Today, quoting the DCCCD Alerts follow-up SMS message122 chars
We are still on Intruder Lock-down. Go to nearest room and lock-down. If not on campus, stay away. Police is on the scene.
The follow-up reused the same template language as the initial alert, with only the 'still on' phrasing distinguishing it — a common DCCCD pattern of repeating the lockdown instruction rather than adding new information
Irving Police initially treated the incident as a possible active shooter with the suspect at large; SWAT teams entered the Performance Hall building approximately 11:50 AM CDT
The minor grammatical error 'Police is on the scene' is preserved verbatim from the DCCCD message — typical of rapid alert composition under pressure
Both bodies — Gonzalez in the Performance Hall common study area and Torres in a locker-room shower stall in an adjoining building — were located by approximately 12:30 PM CDT
ALL CLEARSMS
Approximate reconstructionCNN reporting (text reconstructed from press conference)180 chars
DCCCD ALERT: Police have confirmed the scene at North Lake College is secure. The shooter is deceased. Classes canceled for the rest of the day. Campus closed until further notice.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

All-clear timing is reconstructed from press-conference video and Twitter feeds; the exact SMS text has not been published in a stable archive
The incident was reclassified from active shooter to murder-suicide within approximately three hours of the first 911 call
All seven DCCCD campuses (North Lake, Brookhaven, Cedar Valley, Eastfield, El Centro, Mountain View, and Richland) maintained heightened security through May 8 although only North Lake remained closed
FOLLOW-UPEmail
Approximate reconstructionCBS News (text reconstructed from DCCCD evening press release)369 chars
Today's tragedy at North Lake College has resulted in the deaths of two members of our community. The Irving Police Department has confirmed this was a targeted incident, not an active-shooter situation involving multiple victims. North Lake College will be closed Thursday, May 4 through Sunday, May 7. Counseling services are available. We grieve as a college family.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

DCCCD Chancellor Joe May issued an evening message reclassifying the incident as a murder-suicide; the verbatim text is reconstructed from press reports and quoted excerpts
Janeera Nickol Gonzalez's family later told NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth that she had reported being stalked by Torres in the weeks before the attack
The North Lake College campus reopened on Monday, May 8, 2017; final exams were rescheduled and counseling services made available throughout the week
Context

Background

The North Lake College shooting of May 3, 2017, is a textbook case of an incident that opened as 'active shooter' in police communications and was reclassified to 'murder-suicide' once the scene was cleared. At 11:33 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 3, 2017, Irving Police Department began receiving 911 calls reporting gunshots inside the Performance Hall building on the North Lake College campus in Irving, Texas. The Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), which operated North Lake, sent its first eConnect SMS alert classifying the incident as 'active shooter' at approximately 11:38 AM CDT, and Irving Police, FBI, ATF, and SWAT converged on the campus while approximately 11,000 students sheltered in place. By 12:30 PM CDT, officers had located the body of Janeera Nickol Gonzalez, a 20-year-old DCCCD student, in a common study area in the Performance Hall, and the body of 21-year-old Adrian Victor Torres in a shower stall in a locker room in an adjoining building, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Gonzalez's family later told NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth that she had reported being stalked by Torres in the weeks before the attack. The campus was closed from May 3 through May 7, 2017. The case is a useful counter-example to the more familiar mass-shooter framing: a single-victim, intimate-partner-violence murder-suicide that nonetheless triggered an entire county's active-shooter response, illustrating both the appropriate caution of a 'lockdown first, classify later' protocol and the cascading institutional response that follows.
Analysis

Key Findings

First 911 call received by Irving Police at 11:33 AM CDT on May 3, 2017; first DCCCD eConnect SMS alert at approximately 11:38 AM CDT — a 5-minute response time
The incident was initially classified as 'active shooter' but reclassified to 'murder-suicide' within approximately three hours of the first 911 call
Janeera Nickol Gonzalez (20), the victim, had reportedly told family she was being stalked by Adrian Victor Torres (21) in the weeks before the attack — illustrating the intimate-partner-violence backdrop of many campus 'shootings'
All seven DCCCD campuses across Dallas County went into elevated security; North Lake remained closed from May 3 through May 7
The case demonstrates the appropriate 'lockdown first, classify later' protocol and the institutional cost of a 5-day campus closure following a targeted single-victim incident
Outcome
Two dead: Janeera Nickol Gonzalez (20), shot in the Performance Hall common study area, and Adrian Victor Torres (21), found dead by self-inflicted gunshot wound in a locker-room shower stall in an adjoining building. The incident was reclassified from active shooter to murder-suicide within hours. All North Lake College campuses were closed from May 3 through May 7, 2017. Final exams were postponed.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    North Lake College shooting: Victim and suspect dead, police say - CNN
    cnn.com
  2. News
    North Lake College Shooting: 2 Dead, Including Suspect, in Irving, Texas - NBC News
    nbcnews.com
  3. News
    North Lake College shooting: Murder-suicide on Texas campus, cops say - CBS News
    cbsnews.com
  4. News
    Two dead in murder-suicide at North Lake College - WFAA
    wfaa.com
  5. News
    Family of North Lake College Murder Victim Still Seeking Answers - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
    nbcdfw.com
  6. News
    Police ID Two Dead After North Lake College Shooting - CBS Texas
    cbsnews.com
Tags
shootingmurder-suicidestalkingintimate-partner-violencecommunity-collegetexasdccclockdownactive-shooter-misclassification2017
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion