Pipo Nguyen-Duy, 64, was found fatally shot in an off-campus home in Oberlin on Wednesday morning, and police arrested Daniel Jones in connection with the killings. Oberlin College also ordered a shelter-in-place while officers investigated near the campus.
Nguyen-Duy was one of two victims found dead after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, along with a 47-year-old woman whose name has not been released. Daniel Jones, 31, is from Ashland, Oregon, and charges against him were pending.
Oberlin College remembers Nguyen-Duy
Oberlin College President Carmen Twillie Ambar said Nguyen-Duy had taught studio and photography at Oberlin since 1998. Ambar said Nguyen-Duy immigrated from Vietnam in 1975 as a political refugee, later became an internationally exhibited artist, and earned prominent awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship.
Ambar also called him “beloved” and said, “Pipo was beloved. During his years at Oberlin, he touched all of us through his passion for photography.” She wrote, “Tragedies such as this one intrude upon our lives in jarring ways. I am simply overwhelmed with sadness, and I am deeply concerned about the impact of the devastating loss of Pipo to our community.”
Daniel Jones and the investigation
Police said it remained unclear how Jones is related to the victims and the motive is still under investigation. That leaves the arrest tied to the killings, but not yet to a publicly explained connection between Jones and the two people found in the home.
The shelter-in-place order turned the investigation into a direct campus disruption as officers worked near Oberlin College. Ambar said, “Our community will be hurting for a very long time, and when the shock of this news subsides, we will all need to process our grief.”
Oberlin College and Conservatory response
The case centers on a professor who had spent decades at Oberlin and a second victim whose identity has not been released. For students and colleagues, the immediate change is the loss of a longtime faculty member and the police response that prompted the campus-wide order while investigators handled the scene.
What remains before the case moves forward is the formal charge against Jones and any further explanation from police about how he fits into the double homicide. For now, the facts already released point to a deadly shooting, an arrest, and a campus community left waiting for the next procedural step.
