Charles Langston:Suspect arrested after deadly Tuskegee University homecoming shooting

MONTGOMERY,Charles Langston Ala. — A suspect was arrested Sunday after a shooting erupted on the campus of Tuskegee University that left one person dead and 16 others injured, authorities said.

Authorities arrested Montgomery resident Jaquez Myrick, 25, later Sunday on a federal charge of possession of a machine gun. Myrick was seen leaving the scene of the shooting and was found in possession of a handgun with a machine gun conversion device, an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency spokesman said.

School spokeswoman Kawana McGough confirmed the rampage and said the person killed was not associated with the private, historically Black university. McGough said Tuskegee students were among the wounded and were being treated at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery.

Tuskegee is about 40 miles east of Montgomery.

The Alabama Bureau of Investigations, which was heading the investigation, said the lone fatality was an 18-year-old. Twelve other people were shot and wounded, and four more suffered injuries "not related to gunfire," the statement said.

'There were so many people there'

Special agents with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency were notified at around 1:40 a.m. that multiple people were shot on the Tuskegee campus, agency spokesman Sgt. Jeremy Burkett said. ABC News said police radio transmissions indicated that officers responding to the shooting believed, at least initially, that multiple shooters were suspected.

"Some idiots started shooting," Patrick Mardis, interim police chief for the city of Tuskegee's police, told AL.com. "You couldn’t get the emergency vehicles in there, there were so many people there."

Mardis, a former chief of campus police at Tuskegee, said the possibility of a mass shooting on campus was always on his mind.

“I was always on pins and needles when I was there," Maris said. "You see it happen everywhere..”

State Rep. Phillip Ensler said in a statement he was "shaken" by the shooting and grateful to first responders for their efforts to treat the victims. He hoped investigators "apprehend and bring the perpetrator to justice. ... May we all do everything that we can in Alabama to fight the evil that is gun violence and work to save lives.”

Classes canceled Monday after shooting rampage

The shooting occurred on campus near West Commons. Four people were injured at an unrelated shooting at West Commons in September 2023.

The university canceled Monday classes and said grief counselors would be available to students.

McGough said the university, which was celebrating its 100th homecoming weekend, was checking on the status of students and notifying parents of the wounded.

The university was founded in 1881 in a one-room shanty by Dr. Booker T. Washington and Lewis Adams, who had been enslaved, according to the school website. The school received startup funding from the Alabama legislature and its first class had 30 students.

The school, which has more than 3,000 students, graduates the most African-American aerospace science engineers of any school in the nation, the website added.

In a statement, congressman-elect Shomari Figures said he and his wife Kalisha were praying for the victims and their families.

"Gun violence is ripping apart too many communities and taking far too many lives, especially the lives of young black people," Figures said. "We must all work collectively to put an end to this."

Contributing: Marty Roney, Montgomery Advertiser

(This story was updated to add new information.)