GREENSBORO, N.C. ― Shots fired on homecoming weekend at North Carolina A&T State University prompted a brief campus lockdown after a 21-year-old man was wounded by a bullet fired from a “considerable distance,” authorities said.
Greensboro Police Department said in a statement released overnight that “one or more” suspects fired shots near McCain Hall on campus about 10 p.m. Saturday and one of the rounds struck 21-year-old Divine Eatman.
Eatman appeared to have serious, but non-life-threatening wounds and was taken to a hospital by paramedics, according to the statement released by Police Lieut. J.L. Raines. The statement didn’t elaborate on just how far Eatman was from where the shot was fired that hit him, or whether anyone had been deliberately targeted.
Greensboro and campus police responded to the site and a lockdown was ordered. The university’s website announced about an hour later that the lockdown had been lifted, but encouraged students “for increased safety” to stay indoors.
The university tweeted on its website that campus police subsequently had gone on “visible” and “high alert.” Police said they were seeking as many as four suspects, but a university tweet said no suspects had been identified late Saturday.
Taylor Brunner was quoted by The News-Record newspaper as saying she heard several shots.
“The shooting started. I turned around and a lot of people were running,” said Brunner, described as a freshman university student by the paper.
Samantha Hargrove, a university spokeswoman, told the paper that Eatman was taken to Moses Cone Hospital.
A hospital dispatcher, contacted by The Associated Press, said it had no information to release on Eatman and Hargrove didn’t immediately return email and telephone messages seeking comment.
The university’s website said a week of events for students and alumni led up to a homecoming parade, football game and homecoming concert earlier Saturday.