Can we identify campus killers before they strike?

CLEVELAND -- Legal and academic leaders are struggling with the problem of catching killers before they kill.

There are tens of thousands of students on college campuses across the country. Young men and women with a wide range of backgrounds, and diverse ethnic cultures. Many are discovering their own unique style and persona.

But after the horror on the campus of Virginia Tech this week, and the nightmare of violence at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland four years ago, many have differing ideas about how to deal with students who seem to have mental or emotional problems.

CWRU student Bill Sutton said he prefers to avoid students who act oddly. "You aren't going to approach them," said Sutton, "or ask them or anything or tell anybody about it."

Mark Ewart, a senior at CWRU added, "you don't know where to draw that line where you could give a call to someone. The underlying reality could be the total opposite."

At Case Western Reserve University there is now a concerted effort to make sure every professor, every resident assistant in the dormitory can help identify a student who's in trouble. They know it's important to get that student into counseling and make sure the situation gets resolved quickly.

Doctor Aarti Pyati, Ph.D. and her colleagues in the CWRU counseling center are specially trained to identify and help troubled students.

"We actually have students walking other students over here to the counseling center in Sears Hall," Pyati told Channel 3's Mike O'Mara.

"We have resident life walking people over here to the counseling center" said Pyati. "We also have professors walking people over here. The entire university is involved."

Once the student is identified, Dr. Pyati said there is an immediate risk assessment. "There are many kinds of questions that we ask to clarify the range of danger or range of risk that we're looking at," added Pyati.

But experts in the justice system say there was no legal way to stop a killer like Biswaneth Halder before he opened fire in Cleveland at CWRU.

"From a legal standpoint, you could not stop him even if somebody had tried," said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Bill Mason. "His rights were to act like he was acting. Halder didn't cross the line till he walked in there with a gun. It's very frustrating."

After the shootings at CWRU, everyone is now encouraged to identify and report students with problems. The dormitory assistants are one of the most important links in the chain of campus safety.

"I'm paid to take care of the residents on my floor and in my dorm," said dorm assistant, Nadav Weinberg. "That means I watch out for their well being. I have to be ready to provide academic support and any emotional support they might need."