The University of Colorado student shot dead in his dorm had planned to move out later in the day, wanting to get away from the suspected killer who had already been evicted from a student apartment building, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Nicholas Jordan, 25, has been accused of killing his roommate Samuel Knopp, 24, and Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, on the Colorado Springs campus last Friday.
DailyMail.com has learned that he was expelled from the Lion Village dormitory during the fall semester for selling drugs, harassing female college students and cursing at staff.
Staff and residents told DailyMail.com that Jordan went door-to-door selling marijuana and was nicknamed ‘Slick Nick.’ He would also stand outside his apartment playing loud music through a speaker and regularly ‘boo’ the residents as they walked toward his apartment.
Nicholas Jordan, 25, of Detroit, is accused of shooting Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, and her roommate Sam Knopp, 24.
Sam Knopp, a senior studying music, had complained about his randomly selected new roommate, Nicholas Jordan, and was ready to move out on the day he died.
Jordan was kicked out of his dorm for dealing drugs and heckling women and moved into Crestone House with Knopp.
“We called him Slick Nick because he was always dealing drugs, not good stuff, and then we had residents complaining about him,” a service manager at Lion Village, which is privately owned, told DailyMail.com.
“It was a problem, it was bad news,” the manager said. ‘He came into the office several times, yelling and screaming, fuck this, fuck that, arguing with the manager. He just verbally abused everyone.
Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, was identified along with Knopp, 24, after what police believe was a double murder last week.
“We gave him warnings,” he added. But he simply went too far. That’s why they had to let him go.
“And then he left here and went to the dorms there,” the duty manager told DailyMail.com, pointing down the street toward the campus and Crestone House.
Jordan is due in court on Friday in connection with the case.
Knopp, a senior studying music, had complained about his randomly selected new roommate, an accounting student from Detroit.
On Thursday of last week, Knopp expressed his relief about his impending move to his music teacher Jon Forshee.
“He told me he was planning to move out the next night,” Forshee told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. “He said that he was eager to move, that his dorm life was not comfortable.”
He said Knopp mentioned problems with trash, piles of clothes and dirty dishes, but didn’t get into the larger problems he was having.
“I didn’t feel like going too deep,” Forshee said. ‘I remember him saying I just have to deal with this one more day and then I’ll leave. Just one more day, Jon, and then I’ll be in another dorm.
Another visual and performing arts teacher told DailyMail.com that Knopp’s issues with Jordan were “deep” but could not elaborate further.
Jordan, 25, allegedly opened fire shortly after 6 a.m. Friday at Crestone House. The shooting took place in the four-bedroom unit Jordan shared with Knopp on the first floor.
Sources told DailyMail.com that Knopp was dating Montgomery, a non-student from Pueblo who had stayed over and was also murdered.
Sources told DailyMail.com that another roommate heard the gunshots, then locked himself in his room and called 911.
By the time the police arrived, Jordan had already fled. The university lifted the campus lockdown a few hours later, when police, unbeknownst to the public, issued an arrest warrant for Jordan.
He was captured two days later with a firearm during a car stop.
The shooting took place in the four-bedroom unit Jordan shared with Knopp on the first floor. Knopp was a talented senior studying music in college.
Knopp expressed his relief at his impending move to his music teacher Jon Forshee. “He said he was anxious to move out, that his dorm life was not comfortable,” Forshee told DailyMail.com.
Forshee specifically wrote a composition for Knopp. During his Thursday session, he noted, Knopp asked that the work, originally called Ficciones, be renamed Ángeles Novus (New Angel).
Jordan is being held on two counts of first-degree murder in the county jail and is being held on $5 million cash bail.
Police have shared few details about the case, including a possible motive and information about the nature of Knopp’s relationship with Montgomery, a single mother of two.
Many of Knopp’s friends had never met her or knew of her.
“All of us here in the music department are baffled and curious about Celie,” Forshee noted. ‘I don’t know if Celie was a girlfriend or just an acquaintance or an old friend. For the other guitar students who knew Sam, that name was completely new to them. No one knew who the second victim was until that (police press) release on Monday.
The university has also maintained a secretive grip on information, leaving many students bewildered by the details and rumors that spread by word of mouth.
“I don’t think he should have been allowed to live on campus in the first place after being evicted for what he did here,” Lion Village resident Aubrie Leen, 19, told DailyMail.com.
Some students and teachers took issue with the fact that the school lifted its lockdown just hours after the shooting, while suppressing the news that the alleged killer was a student still at large.
“The first thing the university said was that the campus was safe, there was nothing to worry about,” a University of Colorado professor told DailyMail.com. ‘How can the campus be safe and no one is in custody?’
Others questioned why the university allowed Jordan to move into a dorm after being expelled from Lion Village.
“I don’t think he should have been allowed to live on campus in the first place after being evicted for what he did here,” Lion Village resident Aubrie Leen, 19, told DailyMail.com as she walked outside Jordan’s . old off-campus apartment.
Even with the arrest, there was still some unrest among students on campus.
Forshee said Wednesday that some of his students have not yet returned to class, mainly because they are finding it difficult to cope with the loss.
“Everyone really liked Sam,” said Forshee, who taught him in several classes. ‘The only phrase I hear over and over again from people who knew him is that there was not an iota of evil in his body.
“He was just a very outgoing, dynamic, present and very remarkable young man who looked like he was going to have an excellent career in music,” he added. “Music requires a lot of thick skin and good energy and he had both.”
“He was just a very outgoing, dynamic, present and very remarkable young man who looked like he was going to have a great career in music,” Knopp’s former teacher said.
Knopp and Forshee spent three hours together Thursday afternoon into the evening in a studio at the Ent Center for the Arts, practicing a new musical composition that Forshee wrote specifically for Knopp.
They spent three hours together Thursday afternoon into the evening in a studio at the Ent Center for the Arts, practicing a new musical composition that Forshee wrote specifically for Knopp.
During the session, he noted, Knopp asked that the work, originally called Ficciones, be renamed Ángeles Novus (New Angel). The new title was based on a painting of the same name by the German artist Paul Klee.
Knopp, who played a nylon-string guitar, had been practicing for weeks and planned to play it for his senior recital in March. Now music students are considering performing the song as a tribute to Knopp this spring.
Earlier this week, Forshee said a Colorado Springs police detective approached him and interviewed him about the study session and whether Knopp said anything that might be helpful to the investigation.
Forshee shared what Knopp said about his plans to move.
He told DailyMail.com that he will always cherish his final moments with Knopp, how they embraced when they parted ways and discussed plans to practice again the following week. But she still can’t help but doubt his own words and actions that night.
“I wish after meeting him I would have taken him out, or maybe if we had met for an hour longer,” he said, shaking his head as he sat in the studio where they met.
“You start to wonder what little continuation of the events leading up to that act could have prevented it or made Sam unavailable for it. That’s how close and present this felt, that my God, if I had done something differently, could I have have made a difference?’