Five people, including four students, were shot late Tuesday on the campus of Morgan State University after a homecoming event. The Maryland university canceled classes for the remainder of the week.
University leaders had planned to announce potential changes in the homecoming schedule later on Wednesday, but end up cancelling or postponing homecoming altogether. No suspects have been arrested as of midafternoon yesterday.
The shooting took place Tueday around 9:25 p.m. near the Murphy Fine Arts Center after the coronation of Mister and Miss Morgan State University, according to law-enforcement officials. One victim has been released from the hospital, said Richard Worley, acting police commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, at a media briefing on Wednesday.
Multiple weapons were present at the scene, Worley said, but it is not yet known how many were fired, and it appears that two groups were targeting one person. All five victims were “unintended targets,” he said.
The campus went into lockdown for hours after the shooting; shelter-in-place orders were lifted at 12:30 a.m.
“What happened on our campus was such a senseless act of violence perpetrated on our community. It was so disappointing to learn of what took place, especially after what was a family-filled and fun evening of celebrating the pageantry and beauty of our students,” President David K. Wilson said in a written statement. “But rest assured, our Morgan family is strong, and we will march on with determination to keep moving on.”
Other college campuses have been affected by gun violence over the past year, including the University of Virginia, Michigan State University, the University of Arizona, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Last year several historically Black colleges and universities faced bomb threats that rattled students and temporarily shut down campuses.
Homecoming is a landmark annual event at HBCUs like Morgan State. Until the shooting, the coronation was “really happy and joyous,” said Michael Yates, a junior musical-theater major, in an interview.
After the coronation, Yates and their friends hung out outside the concert hall to take pictures and talk to the newly crowned Mister and Miss Morgan State. “Then a mass crowd started running. And that’s when everybody said there’s a shooting going on. And everybody started to run on out.”
Yates and their friends ran to the University Student Center to shelter in place, but it was locked. “So we were stuck like sitting ducks, waiting in the garage,” they said. The group waited in the parking garage for around an hour before driving off campus.
Yates is staying at their parents’ house for now because they feel unsafe on campus. “This is insane. It’s insane that I should even have to deal with this in my lifetime and everybody else around me,” they said. “No one should ever have to go through a situation like this.”
This story was developed with reporting from the Chronicle of Higher Education