A manhunt is underway after two people were killed and 14 others injured in a shooting late Saturday at a party celebrating Texas A&M University-Commerce’s homecoming weekend, according to authorities.
More than 750 people were attending the off-campus party in Greenville, Texas, located about 15 miles southwest of the Commerce campus, when a man armed with a handgun began firing into the crowd just before midnight, Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks said at a press conference Sunday
“It was complete chaos as people fled for safety and deputies attempted to locate the shooter,” Meeks said of the scene. “Right now we still believe there was just one shooter.”
Of the 14 people injured, 10 of them were from gunshot wounds. Others were hurt while trying to escape the building, he said.
Five of those injured remained hospitalized Sunday afternoon, with four of them in critical condition, Meeks told local reporters.
University President Mark Rudin confirmed that some of those injured are A&M Commerce students.
“At this time, we can confirm four of our current students were treated and released from local hospitals. We are currently reaching out to these four affected students. We will continue to monitor this situation,” he said in a statement.
The shooting is believed to have started as a targeted attack, with the gunman coming in through a back door before directly shooting one of his victims. He then turned his gun on others.
“The rest of them were just random,” Meeks said of the other victims. Because it is believed to have been a targeted attack, the public is not believed to be in danger, he added.
As of Sunday morning, authorities said they don’t have a description of the shooter, which Meeks said “appalls” him, considering how many people were attending the party at the time. Some witnesses at the scene were also described as not cooperating with authorities.
The party was not part of the school’s sanctioned homecoming festivities. None of the victims had been identified by authorities as of Sunday morning, though several of those injured are Texas A&M students. The two fatalities were men, Meeks said.
Hunt County Chief Deputy Buddy Oxford told reporters early Sunday that the shooting had occurred “abruptly.”
Officers found the two people who had been killed inside the building, Oxford said, per The Associated Press. He did not provide any additional information about the fatalities nor the condition of those who were injured in the attack.
Officials had initially said they believed a semi-automatic rifle was used in the shooting. Ammunition shells found at the scene were determined to have been fake and likely part of a Halloween costume, Meeks said.
Authorities have said that they don’t consider the attack to have been a mass shooting “at this time.”
This article has been updated with more details on the shooting.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated that 16 people were injured and two people were killed. The sheriff’s department had included the two deceased in the total number of those injured.