A shooting at Albany State University in southwest Georgia has left one person dead and multiple others injured, marring the celebrations following the university’s homecoming football game. The incident occurred on Saturday night, hours after the Golden Rams secured victory in their homecoming game.
University officials confirmed on Sunday that six individuals sustained injuries, with one fatality reported. The shooting took place around 8:50 p.m., coinciding with a “Back to the Yard Celebration Concert” on the lower East Campus, part of the school’s homecoming week festivities.
Albany State University, a historically Black university located about 200 miles south of Atlanta, has approximately 6,500 students. The names of the victims have not been released, and it remains unclear whether students were involved in the incident.
This tragic event follows a disturbing trend of violence at college homecoming events. On the same day, a shooting at a homecoming event in Lexington, Mississippi, resulted in three deaths and eight injuries. It also comes less than two weeks after a shooting near Tennessee State University in Nashville left one man dead and nine others injured following their homecoming celebration.
The Albany State University shooting adds to the alarming statistics of gun violence in the United States. According to the Gun Violence Archive, this incident is among at least 422 mass shootings reported so far this year in the country. The organization, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one that injures or kills four or more people, not including the shooter. Local law enforcement and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are expected to provide more details as the investigation progresses. The university community and families of those affected now face the difficult task of processing this tragedy in what should have been a time of celebration and reunion
