Alabama’s Tuskegee University homecoming celebration turns deadly as one killed, 16 injured in shooting

A 25-year-old man who was found with a weapon while leaving the shooting scene was arrested

The shooting happened during a homecoming celebration (AP)

A 25-year-old man who was found with a weapon while leaving the shooting which killed one person and injured 16 at Tuskegee University in Alabama early Sunday has been arrested and charged with a federal offense, authorities said.

A statement released by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency identified the man in custody as Jaquez Myrick of Montgomery and said he was found in possession of a handgun with a machine gun conversion device. He faces a federal charge of possession of a machine gun.

It wasn’t immediately known if Myrick had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf, and the statement did not say whether Myrick was a student at Tuskegee University where the shooting occurred early Sunday as the historically Black university's 100th Homecoming Week was winding down.

The shooting left one person dead and injured 16 others, 12 of them wounded by gunfire. Authorities say an 18-year-old man who died was not a university student. But some of the injured were students.

The FBI joined the investigation and said it was seeking tips from the public, as well as any video witnesses might have. It set up a site online for people to upload video.

The shooting happened as the historically Black university’s 100th Homecoming Week was winding down. Tuskegee University announced that classes Monday have been canceled. Grief counselors will be available to help students in the university's chapel.

Evidence markers at the scene of the shooting

The parents of the victim were notified, and several of the injured were being treated at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery, the university said in a statement.

An autopsy on the 18-year-old was planned at the state's forensic center in Montgomery, Macon County Coroner Hal Bentley told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Tuskegee city's police chief, Patrick Mardis, said the injured included a female student who was shot in the stomach and a male student who was shot in the arm.

City police were responding to an unrelated double shooting off campus when officers got the call about the university shooting at the West Commons on-campus apartments, Mardis said.

“Some idiots started shooting,” Mardis told the news site Al.com. “You couldn’t get the emergency vehicles in there, there were so many people there.”

A person who answered the phone at the office of Tuskegee’s police chief said no other information was available.

“Special Agents are still in the process of gathering and examining information relative to the sequence of events which ultimately led to the shooting,” the state law enforcement agency said in a statement.

In his 37 years as coroner, Bentley said he couldn’t recall any shootings during the school’s past homecoming celebrations. The mood around the small town of around 9,000 people was somber, he said.

The shooting left everyone in the university community shaken, said Amare’ Hardee, a senior from Tallahassee, Florida, who is president of the student government association.

“This senseless act of violence has touched each of us, whether directly or indirectly,” he said at the school's homecoming convocation Sunday morning.

A pastor who leads the Tuskegee National Alumni Association told those at Sunday's convocation service that the shooting is a reminder of the fragility of life.

“It is in moments like these that we need to be reminded not to stand on our own understanding because in a moment like this, I don’t have understanding,” said the Rev. James Quincy III.

“I can only rely on my faith, and my prayer for our entire family, this community, as we close out this marvelous family reunion that we shared this week," Quincy said, "and most importantly because of that faith walk and that trust in God, that we have resilience, resilience in the time of trouble.”

Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama — the school's opponent for Tuskegee's homecoming football game on Saturday — released a statement expressing sympathy.

“Today, our hearts are with the Tuskegee family as they face the tragic aftermath of the recent shooting on campus,” the college said. “We extend our deepest condolences to those impacted and pray for healing and justice. Miles College stands with you in this difficult time.”

Sunday's shooting comes just over a year after four people were injured in a shooting at a Tuskegee University student housing complex. In that shooting, two visitors to the campus were shot and two students were hurt while trying 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 about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Alabama's capital city of Montgomery.

The university was the first historically Black college to be designated as a Registered National Landmark in 1966. It was also designated a National Historic Site in 1974, according to the school's website.

Norma Clayton, chairwoman of the board of the trustees, said at the Sunday morning service that “we will get through this together because in tough times, tough people band together and they survive."