Tuskegee University homecoming becomes a warzone: 1 dead, several wounded in mass shooting
Tuskegee University homecoming becomes a warzone: 1 dead, several wounded in mass shooting
    Posted on 11/10/2024
One person was killed and several other wounded in a mass shooting at Tuskegee University’s homecoming Saturday night, as videos captured hail of gunfire ringing out across the Alabama HBCU.

Gunfire erupted on Tuskegee University’s campus as the streets were filled with students, alumni and community members celebrating the school’s 100th homecoming.

Videos shared on social media show rapid-fire shots ringing out as terrified attendees hide crouched on the ground behind cars.

Police responded to a shots fired call at 1200 West Montgomery Road, West Commons, one of the school’s apartment complexes.

The victim was identified as a “non-university individual,” the university told The Post.

Several people were injured including Tuskegee students and were transported to nearby hospitals.

Macon County Coroner Hal Bentley told AL.com that “quite a few people” were injured, but he could not provide specifics.

Among those injured was a female student who was shot in the stomach and a male student who was shot in the arm, Tuskeegee Police Chief Patrick Mardis said.

“Some idiots started shooting,” Mardis told AL.com. “You couldn’t get the emergency vehicles in there, there were so many people there.”

The Alabama Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation into the shooting.

Tuskegee University is located about 39 miles east of Montgomery, Ala.

It was not immediately known how many shooters there were. No arrests had been made as of Sunday morning.

“It’s horrible,” said Mardis, the school’s former campus police chief. “I was always on pins and needles when I was there. You see it happen everywhere. It’s happened everywhere else but us.”

Roughly 47,300 people had filled Alumni Stadium, which has an official capacity of 10,000, for the university’s homecoming football game against Miles College hours before the deadly shooting.

Last year, four people were injured when a shooting broke out at an “unauthorized party,” at the West Commons prompting school officials to cancel classes, according to WSFA.

One student blamed the university officials for the safety issues that plagued the school and allowed visitors to freely enter without being checked,

“Them saying that the party was unauthorized to kind of switch the blame unto us, it’s crazy because even if it was an authorized party, with the security measures we have in place, the same thing could have happened,” Mechel Winters told the outlet.

“I just expected it to be a safe place because we are on campus, and there should be security measures in place,” she said.
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