DeKALB | The two NIU students charged with shooting NIU linebacker Devon Butler are “essentially expelled from the university and banned from the campus.”

Brad Hoey, team leader of Media Relations and Internal Communications, said Mark Orozco and Richard Van Arsdale III have been issued a temporary sanction, which effectively bars them from returning to campus.

Hoey said the same was done for former NIU student Zachary Isaacman, who was convicted in December 2010 of shooting another NIU student back in February 2010.

And Isaacman, both Orozco and Van Arsdale are–or were–members of NIU’s Greek community. Hoey said Orozco was a former member of Sigma Alpha Mu, while Van Arsdale was in the process of being removed from the fraternity prior to Tuesday’s shooting.

CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER

Orozco and Van Arsdale have each been charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery with a firearm, both punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

They also have been charged with one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and one count of the unlawful delivery of cannabis, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Phil Montgomery, DeKalb County Assistant State’s Attorney, said Thursday that police executed two search warrants on Orozco’s place of residence and automobile.

Police found marijuana plants, the weapon used in the shooting, a drug ledger and hidden cash equalling about $800 in Orozco’s residence and three bullet casings in Orozco’s automobile, Montgomery said.

THAT NIGHT’S EVENTS

DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen said an NIU student and another individual set up a drug transaction around 5 or 6 p.m. Tuesday where they were going to purchase a small amount of cannabis from Orozco and Van Arsdale. Feithen said an NIU student and the other subject ripped off the deal and ran into the apartment at 1009 Aspen Drive.

Feithen added that apartment No. 3 was only a couple of hundred feet away from where the drug transaction took place.

Feithen said the student and the other subject knew one of the tenants of the apartment. Several hours later Butler showed up to visit the other tenant of the apartment when Orozco and Van Arsdale showed up and shot the apartment building four times, Feithen said.

The shooting was reported to have occurred at 11:56 p.m. on Tuesday.

Feithen stressed Butler and the tenant were not apart of the drug transaction, nor is there any indication they knew it was going on.

“He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Feithen said.

Feithen declined to reveal the identity of the other subject involved in the drug deal. He said investigators are still talking to people and reviewing the case and that it was too soon to say if the student will be charged.

Feithen said police do not believe Butler was part of a mistaken identity and that Orozco and Van Arsdale were simply targeting the apartment and not any individuals.

BUTLER’S CONDITION

As of Friday afternoon, Butler was still listed as being in critical condition at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.

The DeKalb Daily Chronicle tweeted Friday afternoon that Butler was in good spirits and communicating with family and friends.