Baltimore police respond to a shooting at Morgan State University, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, in Balitmore. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
BALTIMORE (AP) – Five people were wounded, none critically, in a shooting that interrupted a homecoming week celebration at Morgan State University in Baltimore on Tuesday and prompted an hourslong lockdown of the historically Black college.
Students were told to shelter in place for about four hours, as police went room to room looking for suspects. Classes were canceled for Wednesday.
Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the five victims, four males and one female, 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. No arrests were announced and police did not release information about a suspect or suspects.
The shooting happened shortly after an event to crown Mister & Miss Morgan State at the Murphy Fine Arts Center, as students were heading to a coronation ball.
Konnor Crowder, a sophomore from Baltimore, said he and his friends had been waiting for the ball to start when they saw people running across the campus.
“First I was wondering what they were running for, then I was wondering where we should go,” he said.
City Council member Ryan Dorsey said earlier on X that “it’s believed there were three shooters firing into the crowd.” Worley said at the news conference that investigators didn’t know how many shooters were involved.
Worley said police heard gunshots and several dorm windows shattered, so officials initially thought there was an active shooter on campus and followed appropriate protocols. He said they ended the shelter-in-place order around 12:30 a.m., after SWAT officers cleared a building where a suspect may have run.
Shortly after midnight, dozens of students wearing gowns and suits started trickling out of the arts center, where they had been sheltering. Many were trying to process the abrupt shift of an evening of celebration into chaos and fear.
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.
Parents gathered at a media staging area outside a police blockade at the south entrance to campus. James Willoughby, a Morgan State alum whose daughter is a freshman, said he wasn’t leaving until he laid eyes on her. “I’m gonna be here until I can physically see her,” he said.
Glenmore Blackwood came to the campus after hearing from his son, a senior who told him the shooting occurred just as the coronation was concluding.
Blackwood said his son was sheltering in place in the arts center’s auditorium. He sang in the ceremony and was planning to host a prayer service afterward.
“That’s my son. He’s going to make sure I know he’s OK,” Blackwood said. “It’s just sad. They were doing a good thing – an event to promote positivity – and all this negativity happens.”
Morgan State University President David Wilson said he attended the coronation ceremony, an annual ritual that takes place in the runup to the school’s homecoming game on Saturday.
“It is unfortunate that this tragedy happened here tonight,” he said. “By no means will it define who we are as a university.”
The university, which has about 9,000 students, was founded in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute with an initial mission of training men for ministry, according to its website. It moved to its current site in northeast Baltimore in 1917, and was purchased by the state of Maryland in 1939 as it aimed to provide more opportunities for Black citizens.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott noted recent declines in the city’s homicide rate and said the shooting Tuesday indicates a need for national gun reform.
“We have to deal with this issue nationally,” he said. “We have to get serious about guns.”
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Lavoie reported from Richmond, Virginia. Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.
