Police are seeking additional people who fired weapons during a shooting at Virginia State University that wounded five, as investigators work to determine whether the other shooters were aggressors or acting in self-defense.
The new development came as a 19-year-old suspect, who was not a student, remained jailed without bond and Virginia State University President Makola Abdullah addressed the campus community Sunday evening, saying the investigation was still underway and the university was cooperating with local, state and federal law enforcement.
The university said police would maintain an increased presence on campus as the investigation continued.
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Investigators have not said how many other people fired weapons during the shooting or publicly identified those they are seeking. Lt. James Lamb, commander of the Chesterfield County Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit, told The Associated Press that detectives were still working to identify them and determine their roles in the gunfire.
"We don’t have specific locations that we are looking [at] yet as we are working on identifying them," Lamb told AP in an email.
Virginia State University is a historically Black university located in Ettrick, Virginia, about 24 miles south of the state capital of Richmond. The public university has about 5,700 students and was the first fully state-supported four-year college for Black Americans.
The victims ranged in age from 17 to 23 and only one of them — a male, 20, with non‑life‑threatening injuries — was a student at the university, according to police. A non-student male, 21, sustained critical injuries, while a male, 23; a female, 19; and a male, 17, have non‑life‑threatening injuries.
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The shooting erupted at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday near the university’s Quad Annexes residential area. Virginia State University police and Chesterfield County officers responding to the scene found five people suffering from gunshot wounds outside campus residence halls. The shooting prompted a lockdown that was later lifted after authorities said there was no immediate threat to the campus community.
Police later arrested Camron Harris, 19, of Henrico, after officers found him hiding in a closet inside Seward Hall, a campus residence hall, at about 4 p.m. Saturday — more than 14 hours after the shooting and several hours after the lockdown had been lifted.
Harris, who police said is not a Virginia State student, faces four counts of malicious wounding and four counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was being held without bond at the Chesterfield County jail and was due in state court Monday.
The 20-year-old Virginia State University student was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released from the hospital. A 21-year-old man remained in critical condition, while the other victims were expected to recover, according to police and university officials.
In his Sunday night message, Abdullah said "the investigation remains ongoing" and thanked university police as well as the other law enforcement agencies assisting in the case. He acknowledged the concern the shooting had caused among parents and families and said student and campus safety remained among the university’s highest priorities.
Virginia State remains a "strong and resilient community," his statement concluded.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
