Towson University told everyone on campus to shelter in place and close their windows and doors Sunday night after Public Safety officers reported a shooting at 8013 York Road, near campus. The alert went out at 7:20 p.m., instructing students, faculty and staff to close windows and doors as an emergency response unfolded in the 8000 block of York Road.
The shelter-in-place order was issued campuswide, according to WBAL-TV, which reported the alert Sunday evening. TU Public Safety's message asked the entire campus community to take precautions while officers responded to the reported shooting nearby. WBAL-TV reported the shooting occurred at Cardiff Hall Apartments, where an 18-year-old man who was not a TU student was injured and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police were searching for suspect or suspects, and the shelter-in-place alert was later lifted.
What Remains Unknown
The circumstances surrounding the shooting remained unclear as the story broke. Police were searching for one or more suspects. Hoodline will update this story as confirmed details emerge.
Sunday's alert arrives against a tense backdrop for the Towson campus. In a separate incident, 19-year-old Zaron Savyon Elzey of Owings Mills was arrested after what police described as a violent chain of events that included armed road rage, assaulting an officer, carjacking and robbery, according to wbal.com. Police said Elzey crashed into another car on Osler Drive on the Towson University campus, struggled with a Baltimore County police officer and fled on foot before he was caught; he is now being held without bond at the Baltimore County Detention Center pending a bail review. The outlet's report does not connect that earlier case to Sunday's York Road shooting, and no evidence ties the two incidents together.
A Pattern of Disruptions on Local Campuses
Towson has also dealt with threat-related disruptions in 2025 unrelated to Sunday's shooting report. The university evacuated its student union after receiving a threat before 11:30 a.m. on one occasion, and the University Union reopened just before 1 p.m. once investigators determined there was no danger, per a report from OGN SC. Nearby Morgan State University similarly cleared its Earl S. Richardson Library while police searched the building floor by floor during a separate threat response, the outlet reported.
Those incidents fit into a broader wave of threats hitting historically Black colleges and universities. The United Negro College Fund has said more than 75 institutions have faced bomb threats since 2022, disrupting at least 77 days of classes across 18 states and the District of Columbia, OGN SC reported. In September, schools including Bethune-Cookman University, Southern University, Clark Atlanta University, Alabama State University, Hampton University, Virginia State University and Spelman College were all targeted, according to the same report.
For now, the most concrete information available is what TU Public Safety relayed Sunday night: a shooting reported at 8013 York Road and a campuswide order to shelter in place. Hoodline will continue following the story as Towson University and local police release additional information.
