Ernesto Bustamante is not the kind of professor you’d want teaching your kids. The former University of Idaho faculty member shot a former student lover and then turned the gun on himself. Katy Benoit, a 22-year old student, was having a relationship with Bustamante, and apparently, the love affair went south. She’d complained to the university about domestic violence issues with the professor after he pulled a gun on her when she broke up with him.
Bustamante resigned from the university on August 19, three days before he shot Benoit and killed himself in a hotel room. Another student said that Bustamante was “erratic” in class, and had talked about shooting Benoit.
“He talked about shooting students, which was disturbing, and implied that he was (and we should be) drunk and high every other day,” the student said.
There was another complaint in December, 2010 about the professor coercing students into having sex orgies. School officials say that they alerted police to the complains and talked to the professor about the allegations.
“The university responded immediately and decisively to protect Katy and to remove Bustamante from our community. We communicated and coordinated with Katy and the Moscow Police Department, and counseled Katy repeatedly to seek protection and use violence protection resources available to her. We still, however, suffered an unthinkable tragedy,” university President Duane Nellis told reporters.
“Since Katy’s death, every person associated with the university has grappled with this tragedy,” he said. “We’re not over it. We’ll never be over it.”
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