State police believe there was more than one gunman in a shooting that injured two 19-year-olds on Saturday night at Bowie State University in Maryland during homecoming weekend.
During a news conference on Sunday, Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. Roland Butler stated that two people, both 19, were found with gunshot wounds inside the university’s Center for Business and Graduate Studies and were taken to a local hospital.
They were neither students at Bowie State or Morgan State University, a nearby historically black institution or university whose students were invited to Bowie State after violence disrupted their own homecoming festivities the week before. Both cases demonstrated the pervasiveness of gun violence in the United States, which has permeated nearly every facet of everyday life.
According to a Facebook post by Bowie State University officials, they first heard reports of shooting about 11:45 p.m. on Saturday.
Maj. Kenny Brown, assistant bureau commander for the state police, said on Sunday that the shooting was most likely an isolated event. Officers from the Prince George County Police Department, the Bowie State University Police Department, and the Maryland State Police were on duty throughout homecoming weekend.
Brown also stated that no suspects had been identified, but that police were following up on various leads and that preliminary investigations indicated that there were multiple shooters.
According to the website of Bowie State University in Prince George’s County, there will be 6,408 students enrolled in classes starting in the Fall of 2023.
The incident at Bowie State comes only days after a shooting at Morgan State University, which is roughly 45 minutes away. Gunfire erupted outside a popular homecoming celebration on Tuesday evening, sending students fleeing and causing police to issue hours-long shelter-in-place orders while they searched the campus for a culprit. Four pupils and one other person were hurt.
After the shooting at Morgan State prompted the postponing of the school’s homecoming game, Bowie State welcomed Morgan State students to its own homecoming celebrations.
“Together, we are HBCU Strong,” Bowie State Athletics tweeted on Friday on X (formerly Twitter).
Homecoming week is a time for students and alumni to reunite, however there have been reports of gunfire at both colleges during this time.
“It’s unfortunate that we’re here to address another act of violence on a college campus, during one of the most celebrated weekends of the year for the staff, the students, and the alumni on an HBCU campus,” Col. Butler said in a statement.
Aminta H. Breaux, president of Bowie State University, held a news conference on Sunday to express her “deep sadness” over the tragedy. It happened, in other words, “after a weeklong series of wonderful festivities for our homecoming celebration.”
Bowie State sponsored a variety of homecoming celebrations on Saturday night, including a concert, a comedy performance, and an after party in the Leonidas S. James PE Center.
“Our campus community is very much a peaceful community,” Breaux said, “and so this is not normal for Bowie State University.”
Classes will be canceled on Monday, according to Breaux, and students will have access to on-campus counseling services around the clock.
