On the evening of December 10, 1998, Andrzej Wojciech Olbrot, a 52-year-old Wayne State University professor, was shot and killed while administering a graduate computer engineering final in Old Main on the Detroit campus. About 24 students were taking the exam when a gunman entered the classroom around 7:20 p.m., shot Olbrot multiple times, paused to reload, then shot him again as he lay wounded. No students were physically harmed. Olbrot was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital and pronounced dead from at least one gunshot wound to the head.

The next morning a 48-year-old graduate engineering student, Wlodzimierz Dedecjus, went to the Ann Arbor Police Department and surrendered, confessing to the shooting. He was described as coherent and nonchalant and was transferred to Detroit custody. Acquaintances said Dedecjus was angry over failing grades he believed threatened his Ph.D.; Olbrot’s ex-wife said Olbrot was not one of the three professors she believed were grading him. Dedecjus was charged with first-degree murder and felony firearm possession and was denied bail at arraignment.

Did anyone on campus that night notice anything unusual about the shooter’s arrival or departure?