An early Sunday shooting at Tuskegee University in Alabama left one person dead and injured 16 others, 12 of them wounded by gunfire, authorities said.
The victim of the shooting, an 18-year-old man, was not a university student, but some of those who were injured were. No arrests were immediately announced.
Twelve people were wounded by gunfire, and four others sustained injuries not related to the gunshots, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in a Sunday afternoon update.
The FBI joined the investigation and said it is 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 all classes Monday have been canceled. Grief counselors will be available to help students in the university’s chapel.
“The parents of this individual have been notified. Several others including Tuskegee University students were injured and are receiving treatment 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. The 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.”
