The apparent suicide of an East Central Community College student Tuesday morning shut down the Decatur campus for a short time.

According to a press release issued by ECCC officials at noon, an investigation into the death of the male student who lived in the Neshoba Hall men’s dormitory is ongoing. But a preliminary report from authorities with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said their investigation indicated the death was caused from a self inflicted gunshot wound.

“This is a very unfortunate incident and the college expresses its sympathies to the family,” said Dr. Phil A. Sutphin, who is the president of ECCC.

Sutphin said at about 8 a.m. Tuesday the subject talked to his mother by phone. At approximately 9 a.m., maintenance workers for the college, conducting routine work in and around the dorm, discovered the body in one of the dorm rooms.

A campus wide alert was posted on the school’s Web site after the body was found. Authorities with the college, along with members of the Decatur Police Department, the Newton County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation were immediately called to the scene. As soon as the scene was secured and authorities determined there was no threat to students or faculty the lockdown was lifted. Classes had resumed by mid morning.

“We know very little as to the events leading up to the apparent incident,” Sutphin said later from his office. “We do know the student was a white male and he was in his first semester here at ECCC.”

The student lived alone in the dorm room.

Sutphin said to the best of his knowledge, no one else living in the dorm heard anything suspicious during the morning hours to indicate a shot had been fired.

In the aftermath of the incident, Sutphin said he and other campus officials met to discuss their lockdown procedures.

“There are some aspects of our lockdown procedure we can tweak to make it better,” said Sutphin. “We were told there had been an incident and we immediately went into the lockdown even though we didn’t know the full extent of the emergency. We wanted everyone to know we had a situation on campus they needed to be aware of for the sake of their safety.”