The shooting came amid the historically Black institution’s homecoming week festivities leading up to a football game Saturday.
By Dan Belson and Dillon Mullan
Baltimore Police are encouraging people to avoid the area of Morgan State University, where multiple people suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a shooting Tuesday night, and for those in the area of the campus to shelter in place.
Baltimore Police and federal agents are on campus after shots were fired around 9:30 p.m., striking multiple people, near a campus residential building and the home of the institution’s fine arts department. It is not yet known how many people have been shot, or what their injuries are.
The shots were reported to have been fired on the 1700 block of Argonne Drive, near the Thurgood Marshall Apartments and the Murphy Fine Arts Center, and close to the Northeast District Police Station.Special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also on scene, the federal agency said.
The shooting came amid the historically Black institution’s homecoming week festivities leading up to a football game Saturday. On Tuesday evening, a few hours before the gunfire broke out, the fine arts center was slated to host the coronation of Mister and Miss Morgan State. “It’s really sad actually, because this is our homecoming week,” Ray Issy, a sophomore from New Jersey, said while walking to her off-campus apartment. She was concerned the shooting would lead to the festivities being canceled. “It’s like, Bro, why can’t we ever have anything nice?”
Concerned family members are asked to avoid the campus area and instead go to the Safeway parking lot at 4401 Harford Road.
Otis Williams was driving for Uber when his daughter, a freshman clarinet player at Morgan, called in a panic. The school’s marching band was practicing at the football stadium and locked themselves in a bathroom.
Williams, a retired U.S. Army National Guard Specialist from Baltimore City, drove straight to campus. He was unable to reach his daughter amid the lockdown but felt comfortable she was safe. He said he did his “protective dad duties” calming her over the phone.
“The stadium is pretty secure,” Williams said.