STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

For any of you seeing this in briefs on the morning news, this is my school. I'm home for Labor Day weekend but this is unfathomable. We are a small, quiet campus.

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Police: Dad kills sons, self on campus visit

SHEPHERDSTOWN, West Virginia (AP) -- A father and his two sons died Saturday in an apparent murder-suicide at Shepherd University, authorities said.

Douglas W. Pennington, 49, shot sons Logan, 26, and Benjamin, 24, multiple times then shot himself once in the chest with a .38 caliber revolver on the Shepherd University campus, state police said. Both sons were identified as Shepherd students.

Police said the elder Pennington traveled to the campus to visit his sons, but authorities offered no reason for the shootings.

The gunfire occurred about 2 p.m. ET in a parking lot, near residence halls on the campus's west side. The Penningtons were pronounced dead at local medical facilities.

"We are stunned to hear about this terrible tragedy," University President David Dunlop said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims."

University spokeswoman Valerie Owens described the campus as quieter than usual this weekend because many students have gone for the Labor Day holiday. About one-quarter of Shepherd's 4,000 students live in campus residence halls and apartments.

University counselors have been talking to students all afternoon, and a formal counseling session has been set up on campus Saturday evening. Owens had no information on whether any students or faculty witnessed the shootings.

Shepherdstown is in eastern West Virginia, about 80 miles northwest of Washington.

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