When back-to-back gunshots rang out early Sunday morning in a parking lot at Tuskegee University in Alabama, Kierra Talley thought she was going to die. Talley, a junior at Alabama State University, was visiting Tuskegee with friends to celebrate the historically black university’s centennial homecoming celebration when, she said, chaos broke out.
“It was people shooting at each other — whether it was in the crowd, outside the crowd, in a dorm room — people shooting,” said Talley, 20, who added that she saw at least four shooters with “heavy ARs. ‘ and weapons with ‘switches’, a small device that turns a semi-automatic pistol into a fully automatic firearm.
“This wasn’t one person,” she said. “I describe it as a massacre.”
One person was fatally shot and at least 16 others were injured, including a dozen with gunshot wounds, local police said. The dead person was 18-year-old La’Tavion Johnson, the local coroner said Monday. He was not a student at Tuskegee, the university said in a statement.
Videos circulating on social media shows what appears to be some of the gunfire as dozens of people ran behind cars for cover, some trying to sprint to safety and others jumping to the ground. The beginning of the first recording video in one X-post initially caught what seemed like one shot after another, until seconds later there was a steady stream of gunfire that seemed to come from multiple guns for several minutes.
Classes for students were canceled Monday and Tuesday and grief counselors were provided.
At a news conference Monday, Mark Brown, president and CEO of Tuskegee University, said the school community is “heartbroken by what happened,” adding that while the block party was an unsanctioned event, the school takes “full responsibility” takes. He noted that in the future the university would be closed to anyone who was not a student, faculty or staff member.
University officials declined to provide NBC News with further comment on the shooting or the investigation.
Police arrested 25-year-old Jaquez Myrick of Montgomery and charged him with possession of a machine gun, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in a statement. press release. It was not clear whether Myrick was a student. He was taken into custody as he tried to leave the scene, but the department did not say if he is a suspect in the shooting. As of Tuesday afternoon, he remains in the Montgomery County Jail under the custody of the U.S. Marshals, officials said. It is not clear whether he has an attorney.
In a recently unsealed federal complaint, according to the Associated pressMyrick told federal agents that he shot his gun but denied shooting anyone.
The agency said it could not provide additional information at this time. The FBI has also joined the shooting investigation and has asked the public for tips set up a website to accept videos and images about the incident.
Celebration turned to tragedy
According to Talley, people were gathered in the parking lot for the annual prom, which marks the last major gathering of homecoming weekend. There were one record number of 47,000 visitors at the football game on campus a few hours earlier and hundreds, including children, stayed on campus, dancing to music from car speakers and enjoying drinks late into the night.
Around midnight, Talley said she saw a small fight break out between a few people, which she said led to some people running to safety. But once the fight was over, Talley said things calmed down and after a while more people gathered in the parking lot. Although it has not been confirmed by police, Talley believes the fight was a precursor to the shooting.
Tuskegee University’s homecoming weekend in Alabama.
About an hour later, the first sounds of gunfire came, Talley recalled, as she hid behind her car in fear for her life. One of her friends, whose name she says is Tony P., was shot twice and remains in the hospital. Talley estimates the gunfire lasted at least eight minutes before she saw the first officer on the scene. Another 15 to 20 minutes passed, she said, until she saw more officers.
The steady stream of gunfire made the minutes seem like an eternity, she said.
“It was very traumatic to see and hear how close they were,” Talley said, “especially because there were gunmen everywhere.”
The nearest hospitals where the victims were taken were more than 25 miles away: East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, Alabama, a 30-minute drive from campus, and Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery, nearly an hour’s drive .
Talley said she saw people bleeding at the scene, and when she went to visit her friend at Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery that evening, she said she saw people with gunshot wounds on stretchers waiting for medical attention.
“The medical service here is not up to standard,” she said, adding that “people cannot afford health care. … That’s traumatizing and we’re expected to be there and be strong.”
With a population of 9,000, the city of Tuskegee has a median household income of $32,000. One in three residents lives in poverty. According to recent census data, ninety percent of the community is black and about 8% white. There are approximately 2,900 students enrolled at the university.
Tuskegee freshman Joaquin Crayton Jr. believes the university bears some liability for the shooting and its aftermath, especially for failing to keep students safe. Crayton said he was on the edge of the party when he heard gunfire and ran to his residence, Banneker Hall. He said he ran there for safety, only to find a gunman searching the dormitory hallways for someone.
The scene of a shooting early Sunday during homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University.
“When you flee and run for your life, you get a different kind of perspective,” says Crayton, 19. “I thought I was safe in my student house. I wasn’t. A man came into our dorm with a loaded gun and was looking for someone.”
Crayton, an aerospace engineering major, said members of the student body and the school president held a virtual town hall Monday to discuss the shooting, but he said it got “nowhere” because students were continually silenced after trying to talk about their safety to talk. to assure. Crayton said he believes the university did not provide information last weekend about the number of injured victims and student safety deficiencies. Even though the block party may not have been approved, he says, it happens every year and considering the school’s centennial, he believes school officials should have been better prepared.
“As a collective, we are angry about what the school is doing,” he said. “It takes a different kind of trauma for different age groups from 18 to 22 to come together to make sure this never happens again.”
Recent gun violence upon returning home from HBCU
Tuskegee isn’t the only HBCU reeling from gun violence during homecoming celebrations. Last month, in Nashville, one man was fatally shot and nine others were injured, including three children, during the Tennessee State University homecoming parade when two groups exchanged gunfire. At Albany State University in Georgia the following week, one person was fatally shot and four others were injured during homecoming weekend. And at Alabama State, school officials last month reported that shots had been fired during their homecoming activities, although there were no reported injuries.
Talley fought back tears and said, “When is it going to stop?”
The business management major blames the Tuskegee shooting on the lack of personal responsibility in the black community; the lack of gun reform in Alabama; and too little national attention that mass shootings involving African Americans receive in the media.
“Tuskegee is already a small town,” she said. “If no one speaks up about this city, this city will simply be forgotten — in a society where people already want to erase HBCUs and black culture.”
More than 24 hours removed from the experience, Talley said she is filled with a mix of emotions.
‘I’m angry. I’m angry. I’m angry,” she said. “I’m grateful it wasn’t me, but I’m beyond angry.”
Less than three months into college, Crayton said he feels abandoned and the students feel “defeated.”
“Our security has failed us, the police have failed us, our campus police have failed us,” he said. “How many people have to die?”