2 dead, one wounded in shooting at South Carolina State University

A shooting Thursday inside a student housing complex on the campus of South Carolina State University left two teenagers dead and a third person wounded, police officials said.

Neither of the two people killed -- identified as Henry L. Crittington, 19; and Terrell Thomas, 18, on Friday afternoon by the Orangeburg County Coroner's Office -- was a student at the university, said Sam Watson, a school spokesperson. The two had been visiting campus as guests of a student at the time they were shot, Watson said.

Watson added that the person who was wounded, also a male, was a student there. He remained hospitalized as of Friday afternoon, though his exact condition was unclear, according a statement from the university. No suspect was in custody.


Crittington was pronounced dead at the scene, the coroner's office said in a statement; Thomas was transported to a nearby hospital and died shortly after arrival.

The shooting, which occurred around 9:15 p.m. inside a room at the Hugine Suites complex, prompted university officials to place the campus on lockdown for about eight hours overnight. School officials later canceled classes and campus activities through Monday and said that counseling services for students would be available.

The killings were the second deadly shooting on campus, and the third shooting overall, in four months. Two shootings occurred on campus during the university's October homecoming; one left a 19-year-old woman dead. In the other, a man was injured. Neither was a student, and the shootings were unrelated, officials said.

The violence that month rattled the campuses of both South Carolina State and neighboring Claflin University. The two universities, both of them historically Black colleges, sit beside each other in Orangeburg, South Carolina, roughly 50 miles southeast of Columbia.

Local media reported that the October shootings, which occurred near the same housing complex as Thursday's shooting, led to the arrest of at least two teenage suspects.

The mayor of Orangeburg, Michael C. Butler, said in a statement on social media Friday that the city was heartbroken by the recent killings and asked for patience as the investigation unfolded.

"To the students of SC State and to every resident of our city -- we are with you," Butler said in the statement. "We will continue to support our university partners and do everything within our power to promote safety, peace and healing in our community."

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.