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A shooting early Sunday (local time) during homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University in Alabama left one person dead and 16 others wounded, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities said.
One arrest was announced hours later.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said Jaquez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, was taken into custody as he was leaving the scene of the campus shooting and was found in possession of a handgun with a machine gun conversion device.
The agency said in a statement that Myrick faces a federal charge of possessing a machine gun.
He did not accuse him of using a gun in the shooting or provide additional details.
The agency did not say whether Myrick was a student at the historically black university where the shooting erupted as he was wrapping up the school’s 100th Homecoming Week.
Authorities said the 18-year-old who died was not a student, but that some of the injured were students.
It was not immediately known if Myrick had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Twelve people were wounded by gunshots, and four suffered non-gunshot injuries, the state agency announced.
Several were treated at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery, the university said in a statement.
Their terms were not immediately released.
The FBI has joined the investigation and said it is seeking tips from the public, as well as any video witnesses who may have them.
He set up a website where people can upload videos.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also involved in the investigation, the local prosecutor said.
Tuskegee University canceled classes Monday and said grief counselors will be available in the university chapel to help students.
The victim’s parents have been notified and an autopsy is planned at the state forensic center in Montgomery, Macon County Coroner Hal Bentley told The Associated Press.
Tuskegee Police Chief Patrick Mardis said the injured included a female student who was shot in the abdomen and a male student who was shot in the arm.
City police responded to an unrelated double shooting off campus when officers received a call about a university shooting at the West Commons apartments on campus, Mardis said.
“Some idiots started shooting,” Mardis told news site Al.com.
“You couldn’t get the ambulances in there, there were so many people there.”
A person who answered the phone at Mardis’ office said he had no other information.
In his 37 years as a coroner, Bentley said he can’t recall any shootings during past homecoming celebrations at the school.
The mood in the small town of about 9,000 people was somber, he said.
The shooting shook everyone in the university community, said Amare’ Hardee, a senior from Tallahassee, Fla., who is president of the student government association.
He was loading a machine gun a minute before the end of the First World War
“This senseless act of violence has touched each and every one of us, either directly or indirectly,” he said at the school’s homecoming assembly Sunday morning.
The pastor who leads the Tuskegee National Alumni Association told those at the convocation that the shooting was a reminder of the fragility of life.
“At times like this we need to remind ourselves not to stand on our own understanding because at times like this I have no understanding,” said the Reverend James Quincy III.
“I can only rely on my faith and my prayer for our whole family, this community, as we finish this wonderful family gathering that we shared this week,” Quincy said, “and most importantly because of that walk of faith and that trust in God , to have resilience, resilience in times of trouble.”
Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama — the school’s opponent for Tuskegee’s home football game Saturday — released a statement expressing its condolences.
“Our hearts are with the Tuskegee family today as they deal with the tragic aftermath of the recent shooting on campus,” the college said in a statement.
“We express our deepest condolences to those affected and pray for healing and justice. Miles College stands with you at this difficult time.”
Sunday’s shooting comes just over a year after four people were wounded in a shooting at a Tuskegee University student housing complex.
Two campus visitors were shot and two students were injured as they tried to leave the scene of what campus officials described as an “unauthorized party” in September 2023, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
About 3,000 students are enrolled at the university, which is located about 40 miles east of Alabama’s capital, Montgomery.
The university was the first black college in history to be designated a registered national monument in 1966.
It was also designated a National Historic Site in 1974, according to the school’s website.
Norma Clayton, president of the board of directors, said at the Sunday morning service that “we will get through this together because in difficult times strong people come together and survive.”
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