Police are looking for additional people who discharged firearms during a shooting at Virginia State University that left five people injured, while detectives work to determine whether those individuals were attackers or were firing in self-defense.
The update came as a 19-year-old suspect, who is not a Virginia State student, remained held without bond. Virginia State University President Makola Abdullah addressed the campus community Sunday evening, saying the investigation was ongoing and that the university continued to cooperate with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
University officials said police would keep an elevated presence on campus while investigators continue their work.
The investigation into the early Saturday shooting at Virginia State University led to the arrest of Camron Harris, 19, of Henrico, after officers found him hiding in a closet inside Seward Hall, a campus residence hall, around 4 p.m. Saturday — more than 14 hours after the gunfire and several hours after a lockdown had been lifted. (WWBT via AP; Chesterfield County Police Department)
Authorities have not disclosed how many other people are believed to have fired weapons, nor have they publicly identified anyone else being sought. Lt. James Lamb, who commands the Chesterfield County Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit, told The Associated Press that detectives are still trying to identify those individuals and clarify what part they played in the shooting.
“We don’t have specific locations that we are looking [at] yet as we are working on identifying them,” Lamb told AP in an email.
Virginia State University, a historically Black university in Ettrick, Virginia, sits about 24 miles south of Richmond. The public institution enrolls roughly 5,700 students and was the first fully state-supported four-year college established for Black Americans.
Police said the five victims range in age from 17 to 23, and only one — a 20-year-old male student with non-life-threatening injuries — attends the university. A 21-year-old male who is not a student was critically injured, while a 23-year-old male, a 19-year-old female and a 17-year-old male suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooting erupted at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday near the university’s Quad Annexes residential area. Virginia State University police and Chesterfield County officers responding to the scene found five people suffering from gunshot wounds outside campus residence halls. The shooting prompted a lockdown that was later lifted after authorities said there was no immediate threat to the campus community.
Police later arrested Camron Harris, 19, of Henrico, after officers found him hiding in a closet inside Seward Hall, a campus residence hall, at about 4 p.m. Saturday — more than 14 hours after the shooting and several hours after the lockdown had been lifted.
Harris, who police said is not a Virginia State student, faces four counts of malicious wounding and four counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was being held without bond at the Chesterfield County jail and was due in state court Monday.
The 20-year-old Virginia State University student was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released from the hospital. A 21-year-old man remained in critical condition, while the other victims were expected to recover, according to police and university officials.
This Nov. 12, 2023 file photo shows the campus of Virginia State University. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
In his Sunday night message, Abdullah said “the investigation remains ongoing” and thanked university police as well as the other law enforcement agencies assisting in the case. He acknowledged the concern the shooting had caused among parents and families and said student and campus safety remained among the university’s highest priorities.
Virginia State remains a “strong and resilient community,” his statement concluded.
