A first-year professor at Georgia's Columbus State University returned to her apartment Monday only to be shot and killed by her roommate, who mistook her for an intruder. Erica Anderson, 31, was returning to her rented room just after midnight after visiting family in Indiana—where her husband is currently undergoing cancer treatment—when the incident occurred, per Fox News. The Muscogee County coroner said Anderson's roommate had been dealing with threats of violence and arson from her own son.
When the roommate was startled by noises in the house, she reportedly grabbed a pistol and fired twice in the hallway, unintentionally striking Anderson, a mother of three and lecturer in the university's Theater and Dance Department. Coroner Buddy Bryan told local media he is ruling the death accidental, and Anderson's body will undergo an autopsy at the state crime lab. "I'm sure she's devastated, as anyone would be under the circumstances," Bryan said of the unnamed roommate, per KPTV. The Columbus Police Department said the case remains under investigation but declined to provide further details. A GoFundMe campaign is raising money for the Anderson family.