( 4UMF NEWS ) Another Campus College Shooting:
Morgan State University was placed on emergency lockdown and classes were canceled Wednesday night after a man was shot on campus — the latest in a series of violent incidents that have touched the region’s schools this fall.
Many students had just gotten out of class for the day, and others were preparing for evening lectures around 4:15 p.m. when gunfire rang out in Morgan’s student center, rattling the Northeast Baltimore campus.
A message sent through Morgan’s campus alert system soon aired a warning: “EMERGENCY!!! STAY INDOORS AND AWAY FROM WINDOWS! LOCK DOORS & ONLY OPEN THEM FOR POLICE OR EMERGENCY SERVICES!”
The victim, whom police did not identify, was in critical but stable condition late Wednesday. He was not a student, according to university spokesman Clint Coleman, and officials do not believe the shooter was either. The assailant remained at large.
Nonetheless, many students worried about how the incident would affect Morgan State’s reputation. Others worried that the campus is too easily accessible to outside troublemakers.
“I feel like it’s a bad look for our school’s reputation,” said Darius Brock, a freshman civil engineering major from Baltimore who was in his nearby dorm when he received an alert that the campus was on lockdown. “People drive past and all you see are cop lights and reporters, and you know something bad happened.”
The shooting comes on the heels of several other school-linked incidents in the area. In one, an Essex middle-schooler allegedly threatened his teacher and other students with a gun. Another saw a Perry Hall High School student shot, allegedly by a fellow student, on the first day of school.
