HOUSTON — A student was killed and another person was wounded in a shooting outside a Texas Southern University student-housing complex on Friday, and police have detained at least two people, authorities said.
The university quickly went on lockdown after the shooting was reported around 11:30 a.m. in a parking lot at the University Courtyard Apartments, a university-owned student apartment building on the edge of the Houston campus.
Police have detained two people and are searching for a third for questioning, but there is no active shooting investigation, police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said. She said police still don’t have a motive in the case.
University President John Rudley said the school, which has about 9,700 students, is no longer on lockdown. But he criticized what he said was a culture among students who believe they shouldn’t snitch on each other.
“We’re in the inner city. Crime is all around us. Our students have to be more vigilant,” he said during a press conference Friday afternoon.
Rudley said the student who was killed was a freshman at the school, though the student’s name and age haven’t been released. Silva said the second victim, whose name also hasn’t been released, was shot twice and is hospitalized in stable condition.
The incident occurred just hours after another shooting near the same housing complex. It’s unclear whether the shootings were related.
“My main concern is what they’re going to do now,” said Daijsa Fowls, a 19-year-old pharmacy student from Houston. “There’s no enforcement. There’s no way that outsiders should be allowed in a person’s dorm room. I’m supposed to be moving on campus and it shakes me up.”
Fowls noted that she had a 3-year-old son, and said she wouldn’t feel safe walking with him on campus.
“A bullet has no name,” she said. “It could hit anybody.”
Brittney Solomon, 19-year-old psychology student, added: “It’s really nerve-racking feeling that a person here could have a gun.”
The university said in a statement that earlier shooting occurred early Friday morning, and that the school was increasing police presence on campus. Details about the earlier shooting weren’t immediately available.
Classes were cancelled following the second shooting. Rudley said classes would resume on a normal schedule Monday.
The incidents follow a fatal shooting earlier Friday at Northern Arizona University, where an overnight confrontation between students escalated into gunfire that killed one person and wounded three others. Last week, eight students and a teacher were fatally shot at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. The gunman in the Oregon shooting also wounded nine people before turning the gun on himself.
