Key takeaways:
- Five people were found with gunshot wounds near Virginia State University’s Quad Annexes around 1:30 a.m. Saturday and were taken to hospitals.
- Virginia State University said the shooting involved multiple suspects; it was not immediately clear whether any arrests had been made.
- The campus lockdown was lifted at 8:21 a.m., but officials said a significant law enforcement presence remained as the investigation continued.
Five people were wounded in an early-morning shooting at Virginia State University on Saturday, prompting a temporary campus lockdown just two days before the start of the fall semester, university officials and police said.
The shooting happened around 1:30 a.m. near the Quad Annexes, an area by university residence halls on the campus in Ettrick, Virginia. When police arrived, they found five people with gunshot wounds. The victims were taken to area hospitals.
Virginia State University said the shooting involved multiple suspects. It was not immediately clear Saturday morning whether any arrests had been made.
“VSU Police and the Chesterfield County Police Department are actively investigating,” the university said in a statement. “The campus community should continue to avoid the area and follow all law enforcement instructions.”
The university lifted a campus-wide lockdown at 8:21 a.m., but said a “significant law enforcement presence” remained on campus as investigators continued their work. Chesterfield County Police are leading the investigation, and the university urged anyone with information to contact the department. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office were assisting, county police said, according to CBS News.
The university said one victim was in critical condition and four others had injuries that were not life-threatening, CBS News and Al Jazeera reported. The Guardian reported that the university said none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
“A shooting occurred in the area of the Quad Annexes involving multiple victims, who were transported to area hospitals. Police are on scene and request that you avoid the area,” the Virginia State University Police Department said in a statement cited by The Guardian.
The shooting occurred as students were returning to campus for the new academic year. Residence halls had opened a week earlier, and classes were scheduled to begin Monday, CBS News affiliate WTVR reported. Many incoming students had just completed the university’s “New Trojans Experience,” according to CBS News.
Virginia State University is a historically Black public university about 24 miles south of Richmond. It has about 5,700 students and was the first fully state-supported four-year college for Black Americans.
The shooting comes amid continued gun violence across the United States. As of Saturday morning, nearly 300 mass shootings had been reported nationwide this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, The Guardian reported. The nonpartisan tracker defines mass shootings as incidents in which at least four victims are wounded or killed.
Al Jazeera reported that the Gun Violence Archive recorded 100 incidents in which people were wounded or killed in shootings at higher education institutions in 2025. One of the deadliest campus attacks in recent U.S. history also occurred in Virginia, when a gunman killed 32 people and wounded 17 others at Virginia Tech in 2007.
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