Pennsylvania State Police reported they received a call about 4 a.m. Sunday that an armed male student was threatening to harm himself and his roommates after a night of drinking at the Filly Corral, a strip club 20 miles away in Smithton, Pa.

Police in Greensburg said after a three-hour standoff with Joseph Frederick Briggs, 22, a state police officer fired one shot, striking and killing Briggs while he was at a window.

According to initial police reports, Briggs, a Seton Hill senior and Dickerson resident, had fired "at least 30 to 40 times" throughout the standoff, shooting toward officers and hitting parked cars and a house.

Several residences were evacuated and campus buildings were locked down.

Seton Hill is a 2,000-student liberal arts university, about 35 miles from Pittsburgh.

Police said they arrived at the scene and found three men and one woman who had fled the residence. They said Briggs had threatened them and himself with guns. Police said attempts to speak with Briggs proved fruitless.

About 7 a.m., Briggs went to an upstairs bedroom and pointed a long barreled weapon out the window, police said. Briggs fired a shot toward an officer before police fired at him.

He was pronounced dead by a member of the Westmoreland County Coroner's Office.

The preliminary investigation indicated that Briggs and a roommate had been drinking at the Filly Corral, which closes at 2 a.m., and that Briggs was "heavily intoxicated," police said.

Additionally, Briggs' roommates said he may have been having some personal problems, police said, in regard to a relationship.

Preliminary statements allege Briggs may have been acting irrationally, police said, and firing a gun randomly while he and a roommate were driving back to Greensburg from the Filly Corral.

The Pennsylvania State Police, the Greensburg Police Department the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office and the Westmoreland County Coroner's Office are investigating.

Briggs graduated from Poolesville High School in 2005 and was a Washington Post All-Met selection as a defensive lineman.

Robin Christman, the mother of Cory and Jared Christman who played football with Briggs at Poolesville, described him as "quiet, shy and polite.

"I was part of a group of moms who put together meals for the team before games, and he was a young man who always said, 'Thank-you and thank-you.' Other boys, of course, were grateful, too, but he always said it."

Her sons, she said, were shocked and surprised at their friend's death.

"They don't believe it," Christman said. "Nobody can. It's really sad."

Although her son, Cory, occasionally went hunting with high school friends, Briggs did not, she said.

She said her son asked, "Where did he get all those guns?"

After high school, Briggs briefly was a member of the Seton Hill football team.

Seton Hill's head football coach, Joel Dolinski said through a spokeswoman he could not comment personally about Briggs, other than to confirm he was on the team for the 2005 season only. "My heart aches over this horrific event," Dolinski said.

Briggs' only prior brush with the law in Maryland was in 2004, for a speeding violation, according to state judiciary records.

On his MySpace page, Briggs listed "football, rugby, cars, hunting and all that good stuff" as his general interests and said he listened to "country, rock and rap."

Seton Hill said counseling services for the community there are beginning immediately.

A special Mass was held in the school's Saint Joseph Chapel.

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