Two people were dead, 14 were injured and a manhunt was underway Sunday after a gunman opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle at an off-campus Texas A&M University-Commerce party, authorities said.
Chief Deputy Buddy Oxford of the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office said the shooting took place just before midnight Saturday in Greenville, atown of 27,000 people 50 miles northeast of Dallas and about 15 miles from the school's campus.
Oxford said at least 750 people were at the party celebrating the school's homecoming weekend. Deputies had been called to the scene to deal with parking complaints about 15 minutes before the first shots rang out, Oxford said.
Deputies heard gunshots coming from the back of the building, but could not tell whether the shots were fired from inside or outside, Oxford said. Officers found the two people who had been killed inside the building, he said, and 14 others sought treatment of were hospitalized for various injuries. He didn’t have a description of the shooter, for whom officers were still searching early Sunday morning.
Oxford did not have information on the severity of injuries. Medical City Plano spokeswoman Melissa Sauvage told The Associated Press that the hospital ad received three victims of the shooting, all of whom were in critical condition.
According to its website, Texas A&M University-Commerce is the second-largest university in the Texas A&M University System. The school was founded in 1889 and was known by several names, including East Texas State University, prior to joining the Texas A&M system in 1996. The university has around 6,000 undergraduate students and 4,000 graduate students.
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Manhunt underway after gunman kills 2, injures 14 at Texas A&M University-Commerce party