MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Mark Brown, president of Tuskegee University announced Monday the alabama campus will no longer be open to the public, a day after a filming during homecoming weekend killed one person and injured 16 others.

Brown said the campus closure is effective immediately and all guests must wear visitor badges. The university also fired its security chief and hired a replacement who will conduct a review of the shooting.

When contacted by USA TODAY, a school spokesman did not provide additional information about what prompted the replacement.

“The Tuskegee University community is heartbroken by what happened on our campus early Sunday morning,” Brown said. “We offer our condolences to the family of the young man who lost his life. We are providing as much support as possible to the students who were injured and their families and are allowing all students who lived in the vicinity of the incident to relocate. if they want”.

Sunday’s shooting came as the private, historically black university celebrates its 100th homecoming weekend. Gunfire erupted on campus at an event not affiliated with the university, Brown said.

One person, an 18-year-old man who was not affiliated with the school, was killed. Of the sixteen people who were injured, authorities said 12 suffered gunshot wounds.

A suspect, 25-year-old Jaquez Myrick, was arrested Sunday on federal charges of possession of a machine gun. Authorities said he was seen leaving the scene of the shooting and found in possession of a handgun with a machine gun conversion device.

The university hired more than 70 officers for homecoming weekend

The university canceled classes on Monday and Tuesday. Brown said he will host town halls for the campus community to answer questions about violence and that counseling is available to students.

Brown added that he has no plans to end the homecoming celebration, an integral part of it HBCUs tradition.

“We’re reuniting our students with old friends,” Brown said. “We’re celebrating our journey and how the university has helped us along the way and, yes, investing financially in the university that has transformed our lives and that we all love dearly.”

This year, Brown said he plans to have thousands of people attend the centennial festivities, and the university has hired more than 70 law enforcement officers from Alabama and Georgia. The university implemented a clear bag policy and used gun-sniffing dogs.

Brown noted that the event in which the shooting occurred was not sanctioned or endorsed by the university, but it was on campus, and the school takes “full responsibility to allow for a thorough investigation and to implement corrective actions.”

“Students are our greatest asset and we will do everything we can to protect them,” Brown said. “Mother Tuskegee has served students and changed their lives for more than approximately 143 years. We remain determined to continue this mission safely.”

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

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

shootings on college campuses

Since August, shootings have erupted on or near college campuses in at least four states.

last month, shots were fired near Tennessee State University after homecoming celebrations, killing one person and injuring nine others. Weeks later, the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut was locked hours after a person was shot during an altercation on campus, according to authorities.

In August, police arrested two 21-year-old men after four people were shot on the Virginia State University campus, all suffering non-life-threatening injuries. Police said the shooting happened just after midnight near the college’s gymnasium.

The The Gun Violence Archive has tracked more than 14,600 gun deaths and 28,000 injuries in the United States so far this year. In 2022, the guns were the main cause of death in children and adolescents for the third consecutive year.

In Alabama alone, an average of 1,175 people die from guns each year, according to the report Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Alabama has some of the weakest gun control laws in the nation, the center said, and the fourth highest rate of death by firearms.

Contributing: John Bacon and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY

Alex Gladden is the education reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @gladlyalex.

This article originally appeared on the Montgomery Advertiser: Tuskegee University replaces security chief after deadly shooting