ATLANTA (AP) — A 25-year-old man who was discovered with a weapon whereas leaving the capturing scene at Tuskegee College in Alabama early Sunday has been arrested and charged with a federal offense, authorities stated.
An announcement launched by the Alabama Legislation Enforcement Company recognized the person in custody as Jaquez Myrick of Montgomery and stated he was present in possession of a handgun with a machine gun conversion system. He faces a federal cost of possession of a machine gun.
It wasn’t instantly identified if Myrick had a lawyer who may converse on his behalf, and the assertion didn’t say whether or not Myrick was a pupil at Tuskegee College the place the capturing occurred early Sunday because the traditionally Black college’s a centesimal Homecoming Week was winding down.
The capturing left one particular person useless and injured 16 others, 12 of them wounded by gunfire. Authorities say an 18-year-old man who died was not a college pupil. However a few of the injured had been college students.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows under.
ATLANTA (AP) — An early Sunday capturing at Tuskegee College in Alabama left one particular person useless and injured 16 others, 12 of them wounded by gunfire, authorities stated.
The sufferer of the capturing, an 18-year-old man, was not a college pupil, however a few of those that had been injured had been. No arrests had been instantly introduced.
Twelve individuals had been wounded by gunfire, and 4 others sustained accidents not associated to the gunshots, the Alabama Legislation Enforcement Company stated in a Sunday afternoon replace. Their situations weren’t instantly launched.
The FBI joined the investigation and stated it’s looking for ideas from the general public, in addition to any video witnesses may need. It arrange a website on-line for individuals to add video.
The capturing occurred because the traditionally Black college’s a centesimal Homecoming Week was winding down. Tuskegee College introduced that courses Monday have been canceled. Grief counselors can be out there to assist college students within the college’s chapel.
The dad and mom of the sufferer had been notified, and a number of other of the injured had been being handled at East Alabama Medical Middle in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery, the college stated in an announcement.
An post-mortem on the 18-year-old was deliberate on the state’s forensic middle in Montgomery, Macon County Coroner Hal Bentley advised The Related Press on Sunday.
Tuskegee metropolis’s police chief, Patrick Mardis, stated the injured included a feminine pupil who was shot within the abdomen and a male pupil who was shot within the arm.
Metropolis police had been responding to an unrelated double capturing off campus when officers obtained the decision concerning the college capturing on the West Commons on-campus flats, Mardis stated.
“Some idiots began capturing,” Mardis advised the information website Al.com. “You couldn’t get the emergency autos in there, there have been so many individuals there.”
An individual who answered the cellphone on the workplace of Tuskegee’s police chief stated no different data was out there.
“Particular Brokers are nonetheless within the technique of gathering and inspecting data relative to the sequence of occasions which finally led to the capturing,” the state legislation enforcement company stated in an announcement.
In his 37 years as coroner, Bentley stated he couldn’t recall any shootings throughout the college’s previous homecoming celebrations. The temper across the small city of round 9,000 individuals was somber, he stated.
The capturing left everybody within the college group shaken, stated Amare’ Hardee, a senior from Tallahassee, Florida, who’s president of the coed authorities affiliation.
“This mindless act of violence has touched every of us, whether or not straight or not directly,” he stated on the college’s homecoming convocation Sunday morning.
A pastor who leads the Tuskegee Nationwide Alumni Affiliation advised these at Sunday’s convocation service that the capturing is a reminder of the fragility of life.
“It’s in moments like these that we must be reminded to not stand on our personal understanding as a result of in a second like this, I don’t have understanding,” stated the Rev. James Quincy III.
“I can solely depend on my religion, and my prayer for our whole household, this group, as we shut out this marvelous household reunion that we shared this week,” Quincy stated, “and most significantly due to that religion stroll and that belief in God, that we’ve resilience, resilience within the time of bother.”
Miles School in Fairfield, Alabama — the college’s opponent for Tuskegee’s homecoming soccer sport on Saturday — launched an announcement expressing sympathy.
“Right now, our hearts are with the Tuskegee household as they face the tragic aftermath of the current capturing on campus,” the school stated. “We lengthen our deepest condolences to these impacted and pray for therapeutic and justice. Miles School stands with you on this tough time.”
Sunday’s capturing comes simply over a yr after 4 individuals had been injured in a capturing at a Tuskegee College pupil housing advanced. In that capturing, two guests to the campus had been shot and two college students had been harm whereas making an attempt to go away the scene of what campus officers described as an “unauthorized celebration” in September 2023, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
About 3,000 college students are enrolled on the college about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Alabama’s capital metropolis of Montgomery.
The college was the primary traditionally Black faculty to be designated as a Registered Nationwide Landmark in 1966. It was additionally designated a Nationwide Historic Web site in 1974, based on the college’s web site.
Norma Clayton, chairwoman of the board of the trustees, stated on the Sunday morning service that “we are going to get by way of this collectively as a result of in powerful occasions, powerful individuals band collectively and so they survive.”