News of a fatal shooting near campus is shocking the Eastern Illinois University community, and students are mourning the loss of one of their peers. Officials say 23-year-old Byron Edingburg was fatally shot Saturday morning at a house party on 7th Street. Student Selena Castillo says she was in the bathroom at the party when she heard two gunshots, which she would later find out claimed the life of one of her classmates. "Someone was like banging on the door and I was like oh my god I heard gunshots, like I don't want to go outside and like it was just so weird because I just talked to Byron at the party before we went there and just telling him how good of a job he did on his presentation in our class the day before," said Castillo. Castillo says when she went outside to find her brother, she saw Edingburg laying on the ground. "I'd never seen anything like that in my life and people were just like trying to crowd and bombard and just seeing him down there. I saw him still breathing but my brother told me that he saw him turning blue," said Castillo. Student James Bateman woke up to several text messages Saturday morning saying his friend of three years had been shot. "They heard that someone else was injured and they thought it was me because we're always hanging out so I woke up to it and I just seen like my phone blowing up and I was just like what's going on and I started to read the messages like where is James, is James okay? And I was like I'm fine what's going on? I didn't believe it at first," said Bateman. Student Jack Fulk is moving into a house on 7th street in August and he says although the news is shocking, he still feels safe in the area. "It makes me a little nervous that stuff like this could happen so close, but overall I think Eastern is a pretty safe campus so I don't think stuff like this would happen too often," said Fulk. Castillo was preparing to graduate along side of Edingburg and says she sympathizes with his family during this difficult time. "His parents were planning to come here for graduation and instead they have to plan a funeral like that's nothing that any parent should have to go through. I really feel for his parents and his family."
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