Baltimore, Oct 4: A shooting interrupted a homecoming week celebration at Baltimore’s Morgan State University on Tuesday, wounding five people and prompting an hourslong lockdown of the historically Black college. Students hunkered down for several hours, as police went room to room looking for suspects. No arrests were made.
Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the five victims, four men and one woman, are between the ages of 18 and 22. Their injuries were not life-threatening, he told reporters at a news conference early Wednesday.
Morgan State Police Chief Lance Hatcher said four of the victims are students at the university. The police did not release information about a suspect or suspects, and Worley said that investigators didn’t know how many shooters were involved.
The shooting happened shortly after the coronation of Mister & Miss Morgan State at the Murphy Fine Arts Center, as students were heading to a campus ball.
A police news release said officers responded to a report of the shooting around 9:25 pm.
Konnor Crowder, a sophomore from Baltimore, said he and his friends had been waiting for the coronation ball to start when they saw people running. “First I was wondering what they were running for, then I was wondering where we should go,” he said.
Worley said police heard gunshots and several dorm windows shattered, so officials initially thought there was an active shooter on campus and acted accordingly. He said they ended the shelter-in-place order around 12:30 am, after SWAT officers cleared a building where a suspect was feared to be hiding.
Shortly after midnight, dozens of students wearing gowns and suits started trickling out of the arts center, where they had been waiting. Many were trying to process the chaos and fear that overwhelmed an evening of festivities. Orange evidence markers were visible on the ground in front of a building next to the dorm where the shooting occurred. Yellow crime tape encircled the area as officers used flashlights to search for evidence. (AP)
