Tuskegee University fires security chief after mass shooting
Tuskegee Alabama November 14, 2024
The Tuskegee University campus in Alabama has closed to the public and fired its security chief after a deadly mass shooting there over the weekend.
The shooting, which occurred during the school’s 100th homecoming weekend, killed one person and injured 16 others early on Sunday. At least a dozen of those were injured by gunfire, authorities say. Many students were among those hurt.
The university’s president, Mark Brown, announced on Monday that the closure of the campus to members of the public would take immediate effect. All guests must also wear visitor badges, he said.
The university has already hired a replacement security chief who will conduct a review of the shooting. Classes were canceled on Monday and Tuesday.
“The Tuskegee University community is heartbroken by what happened on our campus early Sunday morning,” Brown said in his statement. “We offer condolences to the family of the young man who lost his life. We are providing as much support as we can to the students who were injured and their families and are allowing all students who lived in the vicinity of the incident to relocate if they desire.”
The man killed in the homecoming weekend shooting has been identified as 18-year-old La’Tavion Johnson, of Troy, Alabama, who was not a student at Tuskegee.
Johnson was a graduate of Charles Henderson high school. His family says he had helped care for his nephew after the death of his sister last year.
The Johnson family pleaded for an end to gun violence in an interview with WSFA 12.
“They’ve got to do something,” Johnson’s father said. “They’ve definitely got to do something. Because if they don’t, we’re all going to fade away.”
Sunday’s violence was one of more than 455 mass shootings across the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The nonpartisan archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.
Constantly high rates of mass shootings in the US have prompted some public calls for more substantial gun control. But Congress has generally been unwilling or unable to heed those calls.
Brown said that the event where the shooting occurred was not affiliated with Tuskegee University, which is a historically Black institution.
Authorities arrested a suspect in the shooting – identified as 25-year-old Jaquez Myrick – on a federal charge of illicitly possessing a machine gun. He was allegedly seen leaving the scene of the shooting and was found in possession of a handgun installed with a machine gun conversion device, according to investigators.
Brown confirmed that he had no plans to end the school’s annual homecoming, which is a celebration that has long been associated with the HBCU system.
