Convicted Ex-Student Fatally Shoots Himself

SEATTLE - The former Dartmouth College student who threatened an alumni official has killed himself in the stairwell of a Seattle office building.

Anthony Lightfoot was sentenced in December to five years probation for sending a letter to the treasurer of the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association, threatening to kill the man and rape and shoot his wife. Lightfoot, 25, shot himself in the head with a rifle Thursday night in the Columbia Seafirst Center, authorities said yesterday.

He had been living with his mother in Lynnwood. Police said they did not know where Lightfoot got the gun.

Lightfoot was suspended from Dartmouth last spring after administrators learned he was suspected in the case. Lightfoot pleaded guilty in September to interfering with another's civil rights - specifically, mailing an obscenity-filled letter to North Carolina to the treasurer of the school's black alumni association.

He was sentenced Dec. 29 in federal court to psychiatric counseling and five years probation.