A person has been arrested in connection with a shooting at Tuskegee University that killed one person and injured at least 16 other people on the Alabama school’s homecoming weekend.
Jaquez Myrick, 25, was arrested and charged with possession of a machine gun, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, or ALEA, said in a statement. Officials said Myrick had a handgun with a machine gun conversion device and was found leaving the scene.
In a statement, ALEA said that special agents were notified that multiple people had been shot on the university’s campus around 1:40 a.m. and that it is still gathering information about the events that led to the shooting.
An 18-year-old was pronounced dead on the scene, the agency said. Tuskegee University said the victim was “a non-university individual.”
A total of 16 people were injured, including 12 who were shot and taken to local hospitals for treatment. “Four other individuals sustained injuries that were not related to gunfire over the course of the incident,” ALEA said.
The university canceled all classes scheduled for Monday, when grief counselors will be available for students in the chapel.
ALEA asks anyone with information to get in touch with the FBI, which is investigating.
A nearly minutelong video on social media appears to show a person sheltering behind a car as gunshots ring out almost continuously.
Another witness, Alyssa, who asked to be identified by only her first name, told NBC News she was visiting a friend at Tuskegee this weekend.
She said there was a big gathering, “almost like one big party,” in the parking lot of the west end campus, where she was staying.
She said that though easily over 1,000 people were there, everything was calm, and people were dancing and mingling. Alyssa and her friend were walking around and recording TikTok videos near a truck playing music when she saw people running. Then, she said, she heard the first gunshots.
“I grabbed my friend immediately, and that’s when I heard the shooting,” said Alyssa, 21, of Atlanta. She said she and her friend were pinned on the ground between two cars with a group of other people as the shooting occurred.
Video Alyssa posted to social media shows the group on the ground, hiding behind a vehicle. They tell one another to “get down” as rounds of gunfire ring out in the background.
“It was nearby. You could hear the bullets hitting glass and whistling past us,” Alyssa said. She said she heard people running by and yelling that they were going to pull their guns out and start shooting back, adding that there were multiple shooters.
“We were pinned down for a few minutes because they wouldn’t stop shooting,” she said. “It would be five-second breaks and they started right back up.”
Alyssa said she is OK.
“Unfortunately this isn’t the first time I’ve been through something like this. It’s the new norm for America,” she said, adding that after the shooting ended, the party continued.
Matteo Moschella and Rebecca Cohen contributed.
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