Morgan State shooting: Class, homecoming cancellations after 5 injured
Morgan State University took the unprecedented step Wednesday of canceling or postponing homecoming activities as police continued to investigate who was behind a shooting on campus Tuesday night that left five people injured and prompted a massive police response and a shelter-in-place order.
University President David K. Wilson said he was taking the step — and canceling classes for the rest of the week — to ensure the safety of students on the campus of the historically Black university in Baltimore. He said the school would also increase security measures.
“Please understand that the safety of our campus is of the utmost importance and our resolve in ensuring that we have a secure campus is paramount,” Wilson wrote in a message to the school community. “We strongly believe that this moment calls for reflection, thus allowing our students, faculty and staff the opportunity to focus on their mental wellness.”
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Homecoming is a major celebration on campus, but this was the third straight year that gunfire had marred the annual festivities. The university said it was canceling a concert, a pep rally and a parade, while a football game and a gala would be delayed. Wilson said it was the first time in the school’s history the events had been called off.
Tuesday’s shooting happened around 9:25 p.m. near Thurgood Marshall Hall, a dorm, shortly after another homecoming event, the Mister & Miss Morgan State University coronation.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said at a news conference Wednesday that the gunfire was probably the result of a dispute between two groups but that none of the victims were the intended targets of the mayhem. Four of the victims — ages 18 to 22 — were Morgan State students, and the fifth was not identified. All suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
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It was unclear how many people opened fire during the shooting that sent students fleeing across campus, but Worley said at least three had weapons. Police have not released descriptions of the people involved in the shooting or detailed the nature of the dispute that prompted it, but said video evidence and interviews had given them a sense of what unfolded.
“We know there was more than one person with a weapon, but the problem is ballistics has to tell us how many guns were shot,” Worley said. “One individual was a target of two individuals who had weapons. We don’t believe that individual was hit.”
Morgan State is the largest HBCU in Maryland, with more than 9,000 students.
The Baltimore campus was largely deserted Wednesday, and a somber mood prevailed.
Felicia Edwards stood outside a dorm waving a sign that read “Free Hugs from a Morgan Mom” as rattled students trickled out past yellow police tape.
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Many took Edwards up on the offer.
After learning her daughter was safe, Edwards said she woke up Wednesday thinking of ways to help. She put on a blue-and-orange Morgan State hat and matching T-shirt and headed to the campus. “A lot of parents aren’t here; they can’t get here like I can,” she said.
“Are you okay?” Edwards and two other women asked two students.
“Yeah, we’re okay,” a student in a blue hoodie said.
Behind her, and several floors up, were the remnants of a large window that had been damaged by bullets. As of Wednesday morning, Edwards had given about 20 hugs.
Michael Yates, a 20-year-old junior, had attended Tuesday’s coronation at the Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center. There were dancers and singers performing among hundreds there to celebrate a decades-long tradition. The event ended around 9 p.m.
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Yates, who uses they/them pronouns, said the event had been joyful. But the scene quickly turned to terror.
“I was getting ready to start heading toward my car, and the next thing I know … we saw people start running,” Yates said. Some said there was a shooting.
Yates and friends started off to the student center as police in helicopters announced a lockdown. By the time they got to the center, the building’s doors were locked. The garage was still open.
“Me and my friends, we were kind of sitting ducks,” Yates said. “At that point, everything was on lockdown for everyone.”
Yates and their group of about 10 friends waited in a raised hallway inside the parking garage attached to the student center before eventually fleeing the campus.
Police initially thought the shooting might have been an attempted mass killing. They cordoned off buildings and deployed a SWAT team to search the campus. Video posted on social media showed officers searching a dorm room occupied by students after yelling “police!” The lockdown was lifted on campus around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. The university canceled classes for the day.
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“The young people that went through this trauma were extremely cooperative,” Worley said. “They helped us in every way they could, especially when we had to come into their buildings and dorm rooms.”
Wilson said in a message to campus earlier Wednesday that “we will march on with determination to keep moving on.”
But that wasn’t easy.
Breya Link, 19, walked into the Thurgood Marshall Hall for the first time since the shooting. She was staying with her aunt elsewhere in Baltimore on Tuesday night and hesitated to return to her dorm.
“It’s insane,” she said. “People got shot inside of my building. It could have been me.”
The walkways outside the student center, usually full of activity, were mostly empty Wednesday.
Kevin Rowland said he was on his way to the business school building, where volunteers were handing out food and offering shelter to students affected by the shooting. Rowland said he was nearby last October when a 20-year-old student was shot on campus. The year before that, an 18-year-old student was shot near the school’s Montebello complex.
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“It’s bad to say, I’m used to it,” Rowland said.
About 50 people gathered inside the school’s small chapel Wednesday.
They passed around a microphone and shared tearful prayers.
“Keep your head up, Morgan; you are amazing,” said one woman, an alumna. She remarked on the “excellence” she saw at the coronation and how quickly the community came together to protect one another after shots rang out. “The enemy’s plans didn’t work,” she said. “God made sure that every child went home last night.”
Another chapel-goer broke out into song, crooning, “We worship you, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised,” until nearly everyone sang along. They rocked slowly back and forth in the creaking wooden pews.
Charity Couzens and Karisse Corke-Salandy, both freshmen, said they felt comforted after the hour-long service.
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Later Wednesday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott led a community walk through Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello, a neighborhood that borders the university. The mayor frequently hosts these walks, with department heads and residents, through neighborhoods across the city.
The walk came shortly after Morgan State announced its decision to cancel homecoming activities.
“While we all know and understand how big homecoming is and how important of a thing it is for many people, the most important thing right now is the well-being of their students,” Scott said, vowing to support the school with “whatever they need as the investigation continues.”
Other campuses have dealt with shootings in recent months. An assailant fatally shot a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August. A shooter killed three students and wounded five others at Michigan State University in February.
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Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) opened a routine state government meeting Wednesday by praising Morgan State as a “national treasure” that produces engineers, nurses, educators, entrepreneurs and public servants.
He lamented gun violence and encouraged people to come forward if they know anything about the attack.
“We as a society, we cannot allow this to stand,” Moore said at the start of a Board of Public Works meeting. “Because if we allow this to stand, we are all going to fall. We both have to deal with the very real issue of why it is so easy for people to get their hands on firearms and why it is so easy for those who have their hands on firearms to be willing to pull the trigger on another human being.”
Erin Cox contributed to this report.
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