TUSKEGEE, Alabama — Tuskegee University student Sid Guynn hid under a car when he heard gunshots erupt on his Alabama campus amid homecoming celebrations, then ran back to his dorm, scared by what he said. which sounded like a machine gun to him.

“It was terrifying; “I couldn’t find my phone or my brother,” Guynn said. His brother is not a student at the university, he said, and was visiting when the barrage of gunfire caused students to drop to the ground or flee for their lives.

The shooting left one man dead and at least 16 other people injured early Sunday, a dozen of them from gunshot wounds, authorities said. Hours later the arrest was announced. Many of the injured were students.

The man killed in the homecoming weekend shooting at Tuskegee University has been identified as La’Tavion Johnson, 18, of Troy, Alabama, who was not a student, the local coroner said Monday.

Jaquez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, was detained while leaving the scene of the campus shooting and was found with a handgun with a machine gun conversion device, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said. Myrick faces a federal charge for possession of a machine gun, the agency said in a statement. She did not accuse him of using the gun in the shooting or provide additional details.

The agency did not say whether Myrick was a student at the historically black college, where the shooting broke out as the school’s 100th week of homecoming was coming to a close.

It was not immediately known if Myrick had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. He was being held at the Montgomery County Jail, online booking records show.

Twelve people were wounded by gunfire and four others suffered injuries unrelated to the shooting, the state agency said. Several were being treated at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery, the university said in a statement.

Their conditions were not immediately released, but Macon County Coroner Hal Bentley said he understands at least one of the injured people is in critical condition.

The FBI joined the investigation and said it was seeking tips from the public, as well as any video witnesses might have. He created an online site for people to upload videos. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also participated in the investigation, a local prosecutor said.

Tuskegee University canceled classes Monday and said grief counselors will be available in the university chapel to help students.

Guynn, 18, said group chats throughout the school have been filled with messages of support for the injured victims, whom he said he knows personally. He came to Tuskegee this year from his home in Iowa because he wanted to learn in a close-knit black community, he said.

“Tuskegee, you feel like a family here,” Guynn said, adding that “everyone is connected.”

The shooting shocked the entire university community, said Amare’ Hardee, a senior from Tallahassee, Florida, who is president of the student government association.

“This senseless act of violence has affected us all, whether directly or indirectly,” he said at the school’s welcome convocation on Sunday morning.

Sunday’s shooting comes a little more than a year after four people were injured in a shooting at a Tuskegee University student housing complex. Two campus visitors were shot and two students were injured while trying to leave the scene of what campus officials described as an “unsanctioned party” in September 2023, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

About 3,000 students are enrolled at the university about 40 miles east of Montgomery, Alabama’s capital.

The college was the first historically black college to be designated a National Registered Landmark in 1966. It was also designated a National Historic Site in 1974, according to the school’s website.

Guynn said he hopes increased security will prevent future gun violence on campus. He also said he doesn’t want national attention to define the school and community he loves.

“For something like that to happen, there’s nothing like Tuskegee,” he said.

— The Associated Press