A person was shot late Tuesday night, sending the Richmond campus into lockdown as police responded and ordered students to shelter in place. The lockdown has since been lifted, but key details about exactly when and where the shooting happened remain unsettled across multiple news accounts.
According to WRIC ABC 8News, campus police said a man was shot in the parking lot of the Claude G. Perkings Living and Learning Center at Virginia Union University. VUU officials later corrected the initial identification, saying the victim was not a university student. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment, though authorities could not confirm the extent of his injuries as of Tuesday night, the station reported. 8News crews observed police officers positioned at the university's gates, with staff and student identification required just to get onto campus.
Other outlets reported different details about the timing and location of the gunfire, underscoring how fluid the situation was in its early hours. Virginia Union University police were investigating reports of gunfire on campus late Tuesday night, according to 29news.com, which cited a student witness who said the incident happened just before 11 p.m. in a parking lot outside the Huntley Building. A separate report from wtvr.com placed the shooting shortly before 10 p.m. in the 1500 block of North Lombardy Street, saying one person was hospitalized but that the extent of the injuries was not known.
Witness Describes Chaotic Scene
The same student witness cited by the outlet said he heard gunfire while sitting in his truck and then saw first responders carrying a boy who appeared to have been shot. In response, the university instructed students in residence halls to remain inside and secure their doors, and told people who were off campus at the time not to return until further notice, per the same account.
University officials also urged students, faculty and staff to monitor official communications and avoid sharing unverified information as the night unfolded, the outlet's report noted. The lockdown was lifted after the reports of gunfire, according to 12onyourside.com, though it was not immediately clear what prompted officials to stand down the shelter-in-place order.
Conflicting Report on Student Death
A separate report from richmond.com stated that a person died early Monday after being shot near the university's North Richmond campus. That account has not been reconciled with the Tuesday-night shooting reports from the other outlets, and it remains unclear whether the two incidents are connected or describe the same event.
No suspect, motive, weapon or official police account beyond the initial investigation has been released. Richmond's campus shootings have drawn renewed scrutiny in the region this year; in August, a separate shooting at nearby Virginia State University left five people wounded, according to Al Jazeera, with a teen suspect later found hiding in a campus closet, as reported by the BBC.
Virginia Union University has not released further updates beyond the initial instructions for students to monitor campus communications. Hoodline will update this story as more verified information becomes available.
