2 killed, 12 hurt in college party shooting attack
GREENVILLE, Texas — A gunman opened fire at an offcampus college party in Texas, leaving two people dead and 12 injured before he escaped in the ensuing chaos, a sheriff said Sunday.
Authorities believe the shooter may have been targeting one person at the party of about 750 people outside Greenville, 15 miles southwest of a satellite campus of the Texas A&M University System, and that others may have been shot at random, Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks said. Authorities were still looking for the suspect Sunday, Meeks said, and had not yet identified him.
The shooting took place around midnight Saturday at what Meeks described as a Halloween and homecoming party for Texas A&M UniversityCommerce, though officials have said it was not a schoolsanctioned event. Authorities believe there was one male shooter who entered the venue through the back door and began firing with a handgun, Meeks said.
Meeks described “complete chaos” after the shots rang out, with hundreds of people fleeing, including the gunman. The injured included four people who did not have gunshot wounds but who were hurt in the melee, he said.
The two people killed were both males, Meeks said, but he did not know whether they were A&MCommerce students. He said he believed four or five students may have been among those injured and estimated that most of the people at the party were in their late teens and early 20s. Some were wearing costumes, he said.
Authorities have not found the gun that was used, Oxford said.
The shooting came as Texas A&M UniversityCommerce, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas, celebrated homecoming weekend. According to its website, it is the secondlargest university in the Texas A&M University System.
Meeks said the party was held at a facility called the Party Venue and that the owner was cooperating with authorities. The site sits along a highway in a rural area some 2.5 miles from the Greenville city limits. Meeks said he was not aware of any surveillance video in the area.
Outside the venue Sunday, a few Halloween masks and other debris were strewn about. Pools of blood could be seen on the ground.