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ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — Two men are dead and another was wounded after a shooting in a room at a South Carolina State University residential complex, the university said, prompting a nearly eight-hour lockdown that was lifted early Friday.
The Thursday night shooting happened a little over four months after two shootings during homecoming celebrations on Oct. 4. One, which happened near the same residential complex, killed a 19-year-old woman. A man was injured in the other shooting. School officials announced new safety measures afterward.
University officials have not confirmed the identities of the men. The condition of the man in the hospital was not known.
One man died at the scene and the other died at the hospital, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said in a statement. It is investigating the shooting.
The agency said information on the men who died would come from the Orangeburg County Coroner’s Office. Messages seeking comment were left at the office.
The school put the campus in Orangeburg on lockdown at about 9:15 p.m. The shooting happened inside a room in the Hugine Suites housing complex, the division said.
The lockdown was lifted about 5 a.m. Friday, the university said.
Kaya Mack had just finished making a food delivery on campus when she heard gunshots and saw lots of police officers coming through a gate.
She said she wasn’t sure where the shots were coming from.
“Their loud sirens kind of shook me,” she told WLTX-TV. “We were looking around, me and other people on campus, we’re all looking around like ‘What’s going on?’”
Investigators were on site and law enforcement was patrolling the campus and areas nearby.
The university canceled Friday classes and was making counselors available to students.
Several people have been arrested on gun-related charges in connection with the October shootings.
After the October shootings, university President Alexander Conyers announced the addition of new fencing along the campus perimeter and additional security patrols to better control pedestrian access, according to a news release at the time. Crews were also set to repair damaged perimeter barriers.
Ahead of the university’s annual Youth & ROTC Day set on Nov. 1, the university announced safety and security measures, including a second layer of fencing along the perimeter between Hugine Suites and Goff Street and repairs underway along the shared boundary between South Carolina State and Claflin University.
The school founded in 1896 is South Carolina’s only public historically Black university, and has more than 2,900 current students, according to its website.
The university community recently marked the 58th anniversary of what has come to be called the Orangeburg Massacre. They remembered three young men killed Feb. 8, 1968, when officers opened fire on a crowd of Black students who had rallied on campus after demonstrating against segregation at a local bowling alley.
