Salim Aktherin (left), a student at the College of Osteopathic Medicine, is charged with two counts of criminal trespass after he allegedly pulled a handgun from his waistband and placed it in a backpack on a College of Osteopathic Medicine computer lab for students, the FBI said. He has been charged in Virginia with making a malicious threat. William Thompson

“They did everything by the book. They went to the police, they went to the FBI, they followed up with every precaution in their power,” said George Burd, a former FBI agent who is an associate professor at Southern Methodist University’s School of Law.

Burd said the FBI knew there was a problem with the school’s security but chose to work with the school’s faculty only to see the incident escalate into “an attempt by the federal government to get control of the state university.”

The FBI is involved in all federal and local law enforcement activities in the state of Texas, said Peter Kraska, the FBI’s assistant special agent-in-charge. Kraska’s office works mostly in South Texas, but not in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The FBI did not return requests for comment.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the agency, had told the Star-Telegram her agency could not comment on matters that are in court or may go before a judge.

The university is a legal resident of the state, but its student body is illegal aliens. It is not uncommon for illegal aliens and unauthorized employees of other organizations to come into contact with one another.

The university had been under surveillance by Homeland Security and the FBI.

At some points since Sept. 20, when the FBI arrived during the week of the shootings, the college had been under a general surveillance. However, those conversations were largely conducted by law enforcement officials.

At 4:24 a.m. on Sept. 23, campus police received a report of a possible sexual assault involving a female, which was in a parking lot near the home of the university’s president. Officers went to the address and found a young woman, the Star-Telegram learned. That woman told the officers that she had been shot in the leg but that she did not want to press charges. The officers did not press charges against the student. The next day, at 9:36 p.m., campus police received another report of