A lockdown was issued Friday dawn after a shooting incident took place on South Carolina State University (SCU) campus injuring two female students, one from South Carolina and the other from Claflin University.
Initial reports claim that an altercation between two individuals happened on a club off-campus. The involved suspects then went to the SCU campus and began indiscriminately firing at around past midnight. The shooting incident could have been prevented if there was tighter security, some students commented.
The SCSU campus police were quick to respond on the scene of the shooting incident. The neighboring Chaflin university was also informed immediately prompting their security to lockdown their campus as well.
The two women injured in the incident sustained minor gunshot wounds in their legs. EMS took the victims to Orangeburg Regional Medical Center for treatment and was released afterward.
One of the injured students was a 20-year-old junior. Her statement was as follows:
I was walking in the area to meet my friends, I heard gunshots and as I looked down on my leg, I realized I was shot. Someone came by me and called 911. It could have been my life. It could have been someone else’s life. I’m just thankful it was just my leg and nothing more serious.
Shooting incident taught us to intensify our security efforts
The campus lockdown on both South Carolina University and Claflin University have been lifted by the police at 8 am Friday.
UPDATE: Lockdown lifted after shooting at S.C. State University. Press conference set for 9:30 a.m. on campus. @ABCNews4 #chsnews https://t.co/ZSjV4Z0kt2
— Brooke Schwieters (@Reporter_Brooke) September 20, 2019
SCSU president James Clark spoke on a media press con that,
The school conducts safety checks frequently and they are not announced to ensure there is nothing untoward happening in the campus. This shooting incident was unexpected and a very rare case of a threat in security. Despite that, the security protocols of the campus will be furthermore improved to inhibit similar incidents to happen.
Head of security Steve Pearson also spoke on behalf of the Claflin University,
There are a lot of security measures needed to be addressed by the University and its neighboring SCSU, one of which is the perimeter fences separating these two universities which are often being tampered by students wanting to cross to the other side.
We have also added more personnel on our public safety force to ensure security visibility within the campus at all times. Security cameras are expected to be increased from the current 144 cameras to an additional 80 more.
This was an unexpected incident but also a learning experience on how to improve campus security to prevent future security threats to the students and the whole campus community.
