A fatal shooting occurred Sunday morning at Tuskegee University in Alabama, leaving one person dead and several others injured during the winding-down moments of the school’s 100th Homecoming Week celebration.
Authorities have charged 25-year-old Jaquez Myrick of Montgomery, who was arrested shortly after the incident while fleeing the scene. Myrick had already been arrested at the location with a handgun fitted with a machine gun conversion device; he has now been indicted federally for possessing an unlawful machine gun.
The shooting occurred at the university's West Commons apartment complex. An 18-year-old man who died was not a student at Tuskegee, but several of the injured victims were students. Reports indicated that 12 individuals suffered gunshot wounds, while four others sustained injuries not related to gunfire. The hurt have been taken to various local hospitals, including East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery.
The university cancelled classes for Monday and offered grief counsellors at its chapel to help the campus community cope. "This senseless act of violence touches each of us, directly or indirectly," said Amare’ Hardee, president of the student government association.
The reason for the shooting has not been established, and the investigation continues by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) and the FBI. Authorities have asked witnesses or anyone with video of the incident to come forward.
Tuskegee City Police Chief Patrick Mardis said that the officers were already responding to another unrelated off-campus shooting when they got the report of gunfire on university property. "There were so many people at the scene, it was difficult to get emergency vehicles in," Mardis said in a report.
The victim's parents have been informed, and the autopsy will be done at the state's forensic facility in Montgomery. Coroner Hal Bentley for Macon County said he had never witnessed a shooting incident at the university during previous homecoming celebrations and expressed sadness over the fact that violence had shattered the festivities.
A statement released by Miles College, which played against Tuskegee in the homecoming football game, said the college offered heartfelt condolences to the Tuskegee community and prayers for healing and justice.
“During this difficult time, we walk beside you,” read the statement.
The shooting fits into a continuum of gun violence on the Tuskegee campus, occurring just more than a year since another shooting in 2023 that left four people injured in a student housing complex. Officials and residents promise to be there for each other as they deal with this tragedy, but Tuskegee and its university community are not falling down on that small-town resilience.
One of the oldest historically Black colleges in the United States, Tuskegee University, was declared a National Historic Site in 1974. Violence may have disrupted it but the community is still determined to be strong and university leaders promise to be there for everyone affected by this tragic event.
(AP)
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