TUSKEGEE, Ala. – A shooting early Sunday during homecoming weekend at Alabama’s Tuskegee University left one person dead and 16 others injured, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities said. An arrest was announced hours later.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said Jaquez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, was arrested as he left the scene of the campus shooting and was found with a weapon with a machine gun conversion device. The agency said in a statement that Myrick faces a federal charge of possession of a machine gun. He did not accuse him of using the gun in the shootings and did not provide further details.

The agency did not say whether Myrick was a student at the historically black university, where the shooting erupted as the school’s 100th Homecoming Week was winding down. Authorities said an 18-year-old who died was not a university student, but that some of the injured were students.

It was not immediately known if Myrick had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Twelve people were wounded by gunfire and four others suffered injuries unrelated to the shootings, the state agency said. Several were being treated at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery, the university said in a statement. Their conditions were not immediately released.

The FBI has joined the investigation and said it is seeking tips from the public, as well as any video witnesses may have. He created an online site for people to upload videos. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also involved in the investigation, a local prosecutor said.

Tuskegee University canceled classes Monday and said grief counselors would be available in the university chapel to help students.

The victim’s parents have been notified and an autopsy is planned at the state forensic center in Montgomery, Macon County Coroner Hal Bentley told The Associated Press.

Tuskegee 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 received the call about the university shooting at the West Commons 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.”

A person who answered the phone at Mardis’ office said no other information was available.

In his 37 years as a medical examiner, Bentley said he doesn’t recall any shootings during past homecoming celebrations. The mood around the small town of about 9,000 people was somber, he said.

The shooting shook everyone in the university community, said Amare’ Hardee, a senior from Tallahassee, Fla., who is president of the student government association.

“This senseless act of violence has touched each and every one of us, directly or indirectly,” he said at the school’s convocation on Sunday morning.

A pastor who leads the Tuskegee National Alumni Association told those at the convocation service that the shooting was a reminder of the fragility of life.

“At times like these we need to be reminded not to hang on to our own understanding, because at a time like this, I have no understanding,” said Rev. James Quincy III.

“I can only rely on my faith and my prayer for our entire family, this community, as we conclude this wonderful family reunion that we shared this week,” Quincy said, “and most importantly because that walk of faith and that trust. in God, that we have endurance, endurance in the time of trouble.”

Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama — the school’s opponent for Tuskegee’s football game on Saturday — issued a statement expressing sympathy.

“Today, our hearts go out to the Tuskegee family as they deal with the tragic aftermath of the recent shooting on campus,” the college said. “We express our deepest condolences to those affected and pray for healing and justice. Miles College stands with you during this difficult time.”

Sunday’s standoff comes just over a year after four people were injured in a shooting at a Tuskegee University student housing complex. Two campus visitors were shot and two students were wounded as they tried to leave the scene of what campus officials described as an “unauthorized party” in September 2023. Montgomery Advertiser reported.

About 3,000 students are enrolled at the university, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Montgomery, Alabama’s capital.

The university was the first historically black college to be designated a Registered National Landmark in 1966. It was also designated a National Historic Site in 1974, according to the school’s website.

Norma Clayton, board president, said at Sunday morning’s service that “we will get through this together because in tough times, tough people come together and survive.”