An off-campus college party descended into chaos Saturday night when a gunman opened fire on patrons, killing two and injuring a further twelve people.
According to the Associated Press, police believe that the gunman was targeting one person, but that others may have been shot at random. In the pandemonium following the gunfire, the suspect managed to evade capture – he has still yet to be located.
The shooting took place at a Halloween party attended by several students from Texas A&M University-Commerce, though it was not thought to be a school-sanctioned event.
Mom Kimberly Wilson said her daughter was at the party when gunshots rang out and she managed to flee the scene. “She’s angry, hurt, upset. She’s going through that whole emotional thing,” Wilson, an Afghanistan war vet, told AP. “When you’ve not been trained to deal with something like that — it just throws you off.”
In a statement, University President and CEO Mark Rudin noted that counseling services were available to all enrolled students at the university’s counseling center. He also urged people to stop speculating on details, adding that there was “a tremendous amount of misinformation” surrounding the incident.
Shockingly, on Sunday night, police reported that gunfire had erupted at a vigil for the victims, held just 24 hours after the murders. There were no injuries recorded, but several cars were damaged by the bullets.
As for the assailant in the murders, Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks said that authorities were struggling to progress in their investigation due to interviewed witnesses being reluctant to talk.
“It appalls me that, as many folks that were there, (they) have not been able to give us a better description of this shooter,” Meeks said, according to CNN. “Due to the many different descriptions being provided by those in attendance at that party, we, unfortunately, do not have any solid suspect information to provide at this time.”
Meeks praised two of his police officers for their actions in response to the shooting. He explained how a patrol sergeant managed to rush a victim with life-threatening injuries to the medical center just in time, and that a deputy had triaged victims while waiting for medical first responders to arrive at the scene.
Photo courtesy: David von Diemar/Unsplash
