BOISE, Idaho – A 21-year-old man who is accused of killing a University of Idaho student and is under investigation in the separate slaying of a Boise State University student several days later is now believed by authorities to have shot and wounded a man in Tucson, Ariz., the Ada County sheriff’s office said Friday.
John Joseph Delling, a former Boise resident who last lived in Antelope, Calif., has been linked to the Arizona shooting of Jacob J. Thompson, 23, on March 20, Sheriff Gary Raney said. Thompson, who is originally from Boise, is now in rehabilitation after being shot in the face and chest, Raney told a news conference.
Delling was arrested Tuesday by police in Sparks, Nev., on a stolen car warrant issued by Ada County and a first-degree murder warrant issued by Moscow police in the death of UI senior David Boss, a former high school classmate of Delling at Timberline High School in Boise. Thompson also attended Timberline, Raney said.
Washoe County, Nev., sheriff’s Deputy Brooke Keast said Delling has declined to talk to reporters. It was not known if he was represented by a lawyer.
Boss, a 21-year-old history major, was killed early on March 31 in his off-campus apartment, shot twice in the head, police said.
Police have also identified Delling as a suspect in the death of Bradley Morse, 25, whose body was found early Tuesday in a Boise city park pond near an office of the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation where Morse worked as a janitor.
Family and acquaintances of Delling have said the young man was troubled and acting increasingly erratic before the slayings.
Delling apparently drove some 6,500 miles across much of the West, including California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona and Nevada, during a four-week period prior to the killings in Idaho, Raney said.
Authorities fear there may be other victims.
”We’ve been overwhelmed with these possibilities. Who might have been victims if he was planning another shooting? Why did he drive 6,500 miles in one month?” Raney said. ”What happened between March 20 and March 30?”
Police have sent alerts to other departments along Delling’s alleged route, trying to see if any other unsolved shootings happened during March, Raney said. Investigators are seeking help from the public as well.
”He had to eat, he had to sleep, he had to stop and get gas,” Raney said. ”He had to talk to people. We’re hoping those people can help.”
”There is certainly a long pattern of behaviors that put people in fear,” he said.
Thompson didn’t know why he was targeted, Raney said, adding that a man believed to be Delling lured Thompson from his home in Arizona by tapping on the window and telling him he needed to move his truck, which was parked in front.
As Thompson moved the truck, he asked a man sitting on a bicycle if he was the one who wanted the truck moved, Raney said. The man on the bicycle approached the truck and fired five times at the driver’s side door, Raney said.
Thompson was hit three times, according to police, with one bullet hitting his face and lodging in the back of his head.
Despite his injuries, Thompson, a student at the University of Arizona, is now able to speak and identified Delling from a photo lineup, Raney said.
Investigators are struggling to discover exactly how the four men were connected. Morse attended Meridian High School in a town next to Boise, while Boss, Thompson and Delling all attended Timberline High.
”Often crimes are a matter of who did it. This is a matter of why did he do it,” Raney said. ”Thompson has lived at the University of Arizona for the past three years. Was it something that happened four years ago? Eight years ago? Ten years ago?”
Idaho authorities expect to prosecute Delling for the slayings before he would go to Arizona to face possible charges there.
”He’ll come to Idaho and be charged with the murders,” Raney said.
The gun that was used to shoot Thompson was not the same weapon that was used in the two Idaho killings, Raney said. Police believe the gun used in the Idaho slayings was purchased on March 26 in Boise, he said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
