A man accused of possessing a machine gun at Tuskegee University during a fire pit that left one man dead and at least 16 others wounded told a federal agent he fired his gun during the shooting but denied targeting anyone.

The new details are contained in a newly filed federal complaint that describes how an officer ran toward the fire. That officer found a body and then saw Jaquez Myrick with a Glock handgun, the complaint states.

Myrick was later questioned by state and federal agents, who asked him if he had discharged his firearm during the shooting.

“Myrick then admitted to unloading the Glock, but denied shooting anyone,” a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent who took part in the interview wrote in the complaint.

Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, is accused of possessing a weapon with a machine gun conversion device and faces a federal charge of possession of a machine gun. The complaint does not accuse him of shooting anyone. No attorney who could speak for Myrick is listed in federal court documents, and it was unclear from prison records whether he has one.

The complaint also details the chaotic scene and how Myrick was detained.

A Tuskegee police officer, one of the first to respond to reports of campus shootingshe immediately heard gunshots but was unable to drive his patrol car through a parking lot because it was so crowded with people and cars, according to court records.

Officer Alan Ashley then left his car and ran toward the gunfire, soon finding a man dead from a gunshot wound, according to the complaint. Ashley then saw Myrick, armed with a Glock handgun, and took him into custody, the complaint states.

The city officer also gave the gun to the special agent who wrote the complaint.

“During a field examination, we discovered that the pistol operated as a machine gun,” the federal agent wrote.

Myrick told agents he had come from his Montgomery home to the Tuskegee campus “looking for a party” and was with some friends when the shooting began.

He said he bought the Glock at a pawn shop in Tampa, Fla., and then bought a machine gun conversion device from a seller he met through the online site Discord, the complaint states. Myrick said he received the package at a vacant residence and installed the device on his gun.

The shooting occurred as the school’s 100th homecoming week was winding down. A dozen of the victims were hit by gunfire, while the others were wounded as they tried to escape the chaotic scene, authorities said. Many of the injured were students.

The slain man has been identified as La’Tavion Johnson, 18, of Troy, Ala., who was not a student, the local coroner said.

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 shooting is the latest case in which a “machine gun conversion device” has been found, something law enforcement officers across the country expressed serious concerns about. Proliferation of these types of weapons is possible through small pieces of metal or plastic made with a 3D printer or ordered online.

Guns with conversion devices have been used in several mass shootings, including one that left four dead in a Sweet Sixteen Party in Alabama last year and another that left six people dead at a the bar district of Sacramento, California.

“It takes two or three seconds to insert some of these devices into a firearm to instantly turn that firearm into a machine gun,” said Steve Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. . AP Gun Report at the beginning of this year.

The shooting left the entire university community shaken, 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.

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.

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