Winston-Salem police got the first call at about 9:45 p.m. Saturday, on the night of Winston-Salem State University’s homecoming game. By 1:25 a.m., officers were letting students walk back to their dorms. At 1:45 a.m., police and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office stood in front of cameras on campus and said what they had: two separate shootings, one person dead, three others hurt.
That was four hours after the first call, and it was close to everything. We read the accounts from NBC News, the Associated Press, WRAL and WFDD, and none of them names a building, a lot or a street for either shooting. None names a victim or says whether anyone hurt was a student. None describes a suspect. Police could not say whether the two shootings were connected, and nobody has said how the three injured people divide between them.
“At this point, the investigation is still very early in its preliminary stages.”
Assistant Police Chief Jason Swaim said that at the briefing, and it is the most candid line anyone has offered so far. It is also a long way from what a parent reading a push alert at midnight needed to know.
What the Record Holds So Far
Swaim said one victim in one of the shootings is dead. The sheriff’s office confirmed three people were injured. The campus, which was placed on lockdown during the night, was secure when police spoke, and more officers will be there in the coming days.
The only first-hand detail in any of the four accounts comes from emergency radio, not a podium. NBC News obtained emergency services audio in which officers reported that one victim had a gunshot wound to the head and an officer called for a second ambulance.
A Homecoming Cut Short
Chancellor Bonita J. Brown canceled every remaining homecoming event in a Sunday morning statement. “We also recognize the concern and anxiety these events have created among our students, parents, families and broader community,” she said. Counseling is available to anyone who needs it, and a local church plans to lead a call for prayers in support of the university.
Swaim called homecoming “traditionally a time of celebration and connection.” The Rams had played Fayetteville State earlier that day.
Two Weeks, Two Homecomings
Fourteen days earlier, on the Saturday night of Florida A&M’s homecoming, Tallahassee police say eleven people were shot behind Bragg Memorial Stadium and a twelfth was hurt running away. Six of the twelve were minors, the youngest 11. A 15-year-old, Anthony Rivers III, is charged as an adult with 11 counts of attempted second-degree murder. Police say a fight between people who knew each other came first and that none of the victims appears to have been the intended target.
Add the two weekends together and the count is one person dead and 15 injured: 12 in Tallahassee, three in Winston-Salem, over 14 days.
Two events are not a statistical trend, and the circumstances may have nothing in common. Winston-Salem police have not said what started anything. A homecoming weekend does pack a campus with alumni, families and visitors, and two such weekends at historically Black universities in a fortnight is a fair thing to ask about, which is different from claiming to know the cause.
A Campus That Has Been Here Before
Winston-Salem State has lived this once already. On Nov. 1, 2015, also a homecoming weekend, gunfire around 1:20 a.m. in a parking lot near two dormitories killed Anthony White Jr., a 19-year-old second-year information technology student from Charlotte, and wounded one other person. The campus was locked down for more than three hours.
In August, five people were shot near the dorms at Virginia State University, and only one of them was a student. With Florida A&M and now Winston-Salem State, that makes three historically Black campuses where LNC has reported shootings since mid-August.
What We Think
Our read is plain. Names rightly wait for next of kin. Locations do not, and neither does a statement on whether the threat has ended. Four hours is long enough to tell a parent in Charlotte where on campus it happened and whether the danger has passed, and a briefing that offers a body count and the word “preliminary” is not meeting that duty.
The larger failure is the one we keep writing around. Every one of these stories ends with a gun in a crowd, followed by counseling, extra patrols and a statement about senseless violence. Those are the right responses and an insufficient one. The country has decided, again and again, not to touch the part of the sentence with the weapon in it.
What to Watch Next
Four things will move this story: the dead person’s name once the family is told, whether any of the four was a student, whether police connect the two shootings, and the first arrest. Swaim said extra officers will stay on campus. The next briefing will show whether four hours and one tally was the floor or the ceiling.