ATLANTA — A capturing early Sunday throughout homecoming weekend at Tuskegee College in Alabama left one individual useless and injured 16 others, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities stated. One arrest was introduced hours later.
The Alabama Legislation Enforcement Company stated Jaquez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, was taken into custody whereas leaving the scene of the campus capturing and had been discovered with a handgun with a machine gun conversion system. The company stated in an announcement that Myrick faces a federal cost of possession of a machine gun. It didn’t accuse him of utilizing the gun within the capturing or present further particulars.
The company didn’t say whether or not Myrick was a pupil on the traditionally Black college the place the capturing erupted as the varsity’s a hundredth Homecoming Week was winding down. Authorities stated an 18-year-old man who died was not a college pupil however that a few of the injured have been college students.
It was not instantly identified if Myrick had an lawyer who might communicate on his behalf.
Twelve individuals have been wounded by gunfire, and 4 others sustained accidents not associated to the gunshots, the state company stated. A number of have been being handled at East Alabama Medical Heart in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery, the college stated in an announcement. Their situations weren’t instantly launched.
The FBI joined the investigation and stated it was looking for ideas from the general public, in addition to any video witnesses might need. It arrange a web site on-line for individuals to add video. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives additionally was concerned within the investigation, a neighborhood prosecutor stated.
Tuskegee College canceled lessons Monday and stated grief counselors will likely be obtainable within the college’s chapel to assist college students.
The mother and father of the sufferer have been notified, and an post-mortem was deliberate on the state’s forensic heart in Montgomery, Macon County Coroner Hal Bentley informed The Related Press.
Tuskegee metropolis’s police chief, Patrick Mardis, stated the injured included a feminine pupil who was shot within the abdomen and a male pupil who was shot within the arm.
Metropolis police have been responding to an unrelated double capturing off campus when officers received the decision in regards to the college capturing on the West Commons on-campus residences, Mardis stated.
“Some idiots began capturing,” Mardis informed the information web site Al.com. “You couldn’t get the emergency autos in there, there have been so many individuals there.”
An individual who answered the cellphone at Mardis’ workplace stated no different info was obtainable.
In his 37 years as coroner, Bentley stated he couldn’t recall any shootings throughout the faculty’s previous homecoming celebrations. The temper across the small city of round 9,000 individuals was somber, he stated.
The capturing left everybody within the college group shaken, stated Amare’ Hardee, a senior from Tallahassee, Florida, who’s president of the coed authorities affiliation.
“This mindless act of violence has touched every of us, whether or not straight or not directly,” he stated on the faculty’s homecoming convocation Sunday morning.
A pastor who leads the Tuskegee Nationwide Alumni Affiliation informed these on the convocation service that the capturing is a reminder of the fragility of life.
“It’s in moments like these that we must be reminded to not stand on our personal understanding as a result of in a second like this, I don’t have understanding,” stated the Rev. James Quincy III.
“I can solely depend on my religion, and my prayer for our total household, this group, as we shut out this marvelous household reunion that we shared this week,” Quincy stated, “and most significantly due to that religion stroll and that belief in God, that now we have resilience, resilience within the time of bother.”
Miles Faculty in Fairfield, Alabama — the varsity’s opponent for Tuskegee’s homecoming soccer recreation on Saturday — launched an announcement expressing sympathy.
“Immediately, our hearts are with the Tuskegee household as they face the tragic aftermath of the current capturing on campus,” the school stated. “We lengthen our deepest condolences to these impacted and pray for therapeutic and justice. Miles Faculty stands with you on this troublesome time.”
Sunday’s capturing comes simply over a yr after 4 individuals have been injured in a capturing at a Tuskegee College pupil housing advanced. Two guests to the campus have been shot and two college students have been damage whereas attempting to go away the scene of what campus officers described as an “unauthorized social gathering” in September 2023, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
About 3,000 college students are enrolled on the college about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Alabama’s capital metropolis of Montgomery.
The college was the primary traditionally Black school to be designated a Registered Nationwide Landmark in 1966. It was additionally designated a Nationwide Historic Web site in 1974, in accordance with the varsity’s web site.
Norma Clayton, chairwoman of the board of the trustees, stated on the Sunday morning service that “we are going to get by means of this collectively as a result of in robust occasions, robust individuals band collectively and so they survive.”
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