Shooting at South Carolina State University leaves two dead, one wounded

Feb 12 (Reuters) – Two people were killed and one other was wounded in a shooting on Thursday night at a dormitory of South Carolina State University, an historically Black college, prompting a campus lockdown, school officials said in a statement.

The shooting was reported at about 9:15 p.m. local time in an apartment at the Hugine Suites student residential complex, according to the statement, posted on the university’s Facebook page.

Few additional official details were immediately available, including whether anyone who perpetrated the shooting was still at large.

“University officials have not yet confirmed the victims’ identities or the condition of the wounded person,” the statement said.

South Carolina State, whose enrollment numbers more than 3,000 students, is one of two historically Black universities in Orangeburg, South Carolina, a riverfront college town about 40 miles southeast of the state capital, Columbia. The other is Claflin University.

A person answering the phone line for the university public safety office on Thursday night said they were not at liberty to provide any information about the incident.

The university said it had asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate the shooting, and that Friday classes had been canceled.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Stephen Coates)