Reports of a deadly shooting inside a student housing complex on the South Carolina State University campus made headlines on Friday (US time). The tragic development is said to have left two teenagers dead and a third individual wounded.
At the time of writing, no suspect was in custody. Authorities have yet to name the person behind the fatal shooting as well.
The Thursday incident was the second deadly shooting on campus, and the third overall, in four months, as per the New York Times.
Who were the South Carolina State University shooting victims?
Although the incident took place on Thursday night, February 12, the Orangeburg County Coroner’s Office identified the US university shooting’s victims on Friday afternoon. The two people killed on campus were 19-year-old Henry L Crittington and 18-year-old Terrell Thomas. Neither of them was a student at the university.
The coroner’s office also revealed that Crittington was unfortunately pronounced dead at the scene. Meanwhile, Thomas was taken to a nearby hospital after the shooting. He died shortly after arriving at the medical institution.
According to school spokesman Sam Watson, Crittington and Thomas were visiting as guests of a student on the day they were killed, the New York Times reported.
The person wounded during the incident was identified as a male student at the university. However, his name wasn’t publicly released at the time of writing. As of Friday afternoon, he was still hospitalised. His exact condition wasn’t clarified at the time either.
What do we know about Thursday’s South Carolina shooting?
Gunfire is said to have erupted inside a room at the Hugine Suites complex at around 9:15 pm local time Thursday night.
In its response to the Thursday shooting, university officials instated a campus lockdown for about eight hours overnight.
Classes and campus activities were also subsequently cancelled for Monday, while counselling services for students were highlighted for those who needed them.
After the shooting, some students expressed their vocal criticism related to safety concerns about the complex. Moreover, the recurrence of such harrowing incidents at the same location left quite a few unsettled.
One such student told local news outlet WCSC, “I don’t feel safe low-key because they let anybody on this campus.” Meanwhile, another called out the lack of adequate security infrastructure at Hugine Suites.
“Hugine is not really security, and there’s no cameras. Please, we need cameras in every Hugine Suite,” she told the US outlet.
A sophomore similarly criticised the current state of security measures: “They’re not checking cars. I mean, they do check your IDs, but you can still bring a gun on campus, and nobody will know.”
A different student also held fellow students responsible for such situations. “I also feel like us as students, we’ve got to take a tad bit of accountability because if you know your friends, your associates, and whoever that you are in your circle have guns on campus, why not, you know, tell them to leave the guns at home or something like that,” they told WCSC.
A previous shooting in October, less than six months ago during homecoming week, also took place near the same housing complex. At the time, at least two teen suspects were arrested.