A shooting at Tuskegee University’s homecoming venue early Sunday left a teenager dead and 16 others injured. A video showed the sound of bullets flying around the Alabama campus.
The deceased victim (an 18-year-old male) was not a student, but several of the injured were students.
The Alabama Department of Law Enforcement said Sunday afternoon that at least 12 people were injured in the shooting and four more were injured.
No arrests have been announced.
The gunfire erupted just before 2 a.m. as students, faculty, alumni and parents filled the campus and streets as the historically black university’s 100th homecoming celebration came to a close.
Shocking footage shared on social media showed a series of gunshots ringing out inside the darkened campus as people crouched behind cars or lay on the grass.
The gunshots appeared to come from multiple weapons and sounded as if gunmen were exchanging fire.
Police responded to a call of shots fired at the West Commons, 1200 block of West Montgomery Road, one of the school’s housing complexes.
Among the injured were a female student who was shot in the abdomen and a male student who was shot in the arm, Tuskegee Police Chief Patrick Mardis said.
“Some idiot started shooting guns,” Mardis told AL.com. “There were so many people that emergency vehicles couldn’t get in.”
#Tuskegee #Tuskegee University pic.twitter.com/lUYRgi7fN4
— Alyssa (@alyssa70953495) November 10, 2024
The Alabama Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation into the shooting, but classes have been canceled Monday as police continue to monitor the scene.
Tuskegee University is located approximately 63 miles east of Montgomery.
“It’s terrible,” said Mardis, the school’s former chief of campus police. “When I was there, I was always in trouble. I see it happening everywhere. It happened everywhere but us.”
Hours before the shooting, about 47,300 people had filled Alumni Stadium, which has an official capacity of 10,000, to watch the school’s homecoming football game against Miles College.
Last year, four people were injured in a shooting at an “unlicensed party” in West Commons, according to WSFA.
Who records brave AF? They YN won the button and were actually playing COD at Tuskegee Homecoming. My fit would have looked like I was playing in a HS football game. pic.twitter.com/G7VqmZ7Oo8
— ❤️🩹 (@TheKomeUp_1004L) November 10, 2024
One student blamed university authorities for safety issues plaguing the school and allowing visitors to enter freely without inspection.
“They say the unauthorized party passed the blame on to us, but that’s crazy.Even if it was an authorized party, given the safety measures we have in place, That could have happened,” Mechelle Winters told the outlet. .
“We thought it was a safe place because we’re on campus. There should be safety measures in place,” she said.
