A 19-Year-Old Portland State Student Was Fatally Shot Near Campus. Another Student Was Arrested For Her Killing.

Keenan Harpole, a student and former football player at the university, was charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Amara Marluke.

A Portland State University student has been arrested on murder charges for the fatal shooting of a fellow student, police said, and records indicate it may have been related to domestic violence.

Amara Marluke, 19, was found dead near the college campus early Monday, officials said. Later that day, 20-year-old Keenan Harpole turned himself in after being contacted by law enforcement and was taken into custody on a family property in Bend, Oregon. The medical examiner determined that Marluke died from gunshot wounds and ruled her death a homicide.

Harpole has been charged with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon. Jail records show that both charges are related to domestic violence.

It is not yet known how Marluke and Harpole might have known each other, and authorities did not share further details regarding the possible link to domestic violence.

A statement from the university's president, Stephen Percy, said both Marluke and Harpole were students. Harpole previously played football for the school, he added, and a team roster shows he was a running back in 2021.

Marluke "was an artist and an activist and a vibrant member of our community," Percy said.

"I am profoundly affected by the sheer tragedy of this loss," Percy said. "My heart breaks for Amara’s family and for everyone who knew her."

Marluke was a singer and songwriter who was majoring in music, and was copresident of the school's Black Student Union, the Oregonian reported. She often made Instagram posts talking about Black Lives Matter and issues of colorism and racial justice.

Her father, Bradley Marluke, told the paper that he and his wife adopted Marluke when she was 9 after she had lived in foster homes for years.

“To say that Amara was the light of our life, a beautiful and a caring soul would not begin to do her justice,” Bradley Marluke told the Oregonian. “Her dedication to her family and friends was unwavering and that she would fall victim to a senseless and violent death is unimaginable.”

A GoFundMe for the family has raised more than $6,000.

College-age women face some of the highest rates of domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence, statistics show. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, women between the ages of 18 and 24 are the group most likely to experience abuse from a partner.

Domestic violence is often a strong indicator of an eventual murder. Two out of every five women who die by murder are killed by an intimate partner, according to the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. In fact, women are more likely to be murdered by a partner than by anyone else.

In recent years, numerous college students have been murdered by their partners. In February, 19-year-old Zhifan Dong, a first-year student at the University of Utah, was killed after her boyfriend allegedly injected her with heroin. Another University of Utah student, 21-year-old Lauren McCluskey, was shot and killed in 2018 by a man she'd dated for about a month. In 2019, Ally Kostial, a 21-year-old Ole Miss student, was fatally shot after telling a man with whom she'd had a relationship that he might have gotten her pregnant.

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