The Waller County Sheriff’s Office reported that seven people, including a child, were shot Sunday at a crowded off-campus party near the Prairie View A&M University, a historically black university in Texas.
The event, a trail ride party attended by more than a thousand people, was held during the family’s homecoming weekend. Prairie View A&M, about 2 miles from the university campus.
A university spokesperson said it is not known if any of the people who were injured or involved are affiliated with the Prairie View A&M University.
“Even though this It was not an official PVAMU welcome event and was not affiliated with the university, our university community is deeply concerned for those injured and everyone affected by this incident,” a university spokesperson said, according to NBC News.
The incident comes just weeks after five people were injured in a mass shooting at Morgan State University, causing homecoming to be canceled for the first time in the study center’s history.
In Prairie View A&M, Police were called to the scene shortly after 10 pm on Sunday and discovered that four adult women, two adult men and a young man had suffered gunshot wounds to the lower body.
The injuries were not life-threatening.The Waller County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The injured people were spectators of a dispute which involved an unknown number of people at the party, the sheriff’s office said.
According to a local ordinance, the mass gathering, which took place in a field and offered horseback riding, had to be approved.
He Waller County Judge Trey Duhon who approved the order, said in a statement on Facebook that the ordinance was implemented more than three years ago when similar events held on pastures began to become a problem.
In the most recent incident, a party promoter attended a hearing on a permit application and agreed to safety, noise level, sanitation and fire safety requirements.
“The organizers failed to comply with the permit conditions on a number of issues, and an investigation is currently underway, not only into the shooting itself, but also into the circumstances surrounding the event, the parking situation on public roads, trash and debris, and permit requirements that were not met,” Duhon said in the statement.
The event permit, which was also posted by Duhon on Facebook, specified that 35 security personnel must be on site, more than half of whom must be licensed law enforcement officers.
However, according to police, security for the party was provided by officers from Waller County Precinct 3 and an unknown private security agency.
“None of the safety protocols established by the permitting agency and agreed upon by the developer were followed at the time of the incident,” the Waller County Sheriff’s Office said.
The case is still under investigation.
Since the Morgan State University shooting, other historically black colleges and universities have also faced similar incidents.
In August, a police officer from the Edward Waters University in Florida diverted a shooter from campus, but the suspect shot and killed three people at a nearby dollar store.
While last month, two students at Bowie State University in Maryland suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a shooting.
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