One student was killed and another person was injured after someone opened fire outside a Texas Southern University dormitory on Friday morning, prompting a lockdown at the Houston school, officials said.

The gunfire outside the University Courtyard dormitory left one student dead and another man seriously injured at 11:35 a.m. local time, according to Eva Pickens, the school’s associate vice president of communications.

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It was the second fatal shooting on a U.S. college campus on Friday.


The dead student was an 18-year-old freshman from Houston, according to Pickens. His identity is being withheld pending notification of his family. A second victim was in stable condition at a Houston-area hospital, she said.

“It’s crazy,” Pickens said. “It’s broad daylight.”

School officials initially said that three persons of interest had been detained by Houston police. In a statement issued later Friday, the school said only two were in custody.

The suspected shooter remains at large, according to the university statement.


Jodi Silva, a Houston Police spokeswoman, said the two men who are considered persons of interest were seen running to the fourth floor of the University Courtyard apartments shortly after the shooting. They were detained at the scene without incident, Silva said.

All three persons of interest are male. It was not clear if more than one gunman was involved in the attack, according to Silva, who said the weapon used in the shooting was a handgun.

It was also not clear whether any of the people sought by police were students or how they were connected to the university. Silva would not comment on any relationships between the victims and persons of interest.

A motive for the shooting remained unclear. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.


The incident was the second shooting on campus in just 12 hours. A shooting left one person injured outside the same dormitory around midnight Thursday, according to a statement issued by the school.

While there was no immediate reason to believe the Friday morning shooting was linked to a shooting that took place on campus Thursday night, Silva said police are investigating that possibility.

GRAPHIC: Since Sandy Hook, a gun has been fired on school grounds nearly once a week

Students are not allowed to carry firearms on campus, Pickens said.


The shootings come as a wave of gun violence on college campuses throughout the U.S. has reignited a debate over gun control and laws that block students from carrying firearms on campus.

Earlier on Friday, an argument at Northern Arizona University sparked a shooting that left one student dead and three injured. Last week, a gunman opened fire on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., killing nine and wounding nine others.

President Obama, who made an impassioned plea for lawmakers to consider passing gun control legislation after the Oregon shooting, was expected to visit with the families of the victims of that attack on Friday.

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