Police say 12 people were hurt in the FAMU homecoming shooting Saturday night in Tallahassee, and half of them are children, the youngest just 11 years old.
Gunfire broke out just before 8 p.m. on Perry Street near Manatee Street, behind Florida A&M University’s Bragg Memorial Stadium. The Rattlers had wrapped up their homecoming game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff around 6 p.m., a 31 to 28 loss, and people were still in the area when the shots rang out.
Eleven people were shot. A twelfth person was hurt while running from the scene. Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said six of the victims are adults and six are juveniles.
Three victims suffered serious injuries, and one was in critical condition as of Sunday morning. The rest were listed as stable. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that six victims were still in the hospital Sunday.
Police have not released the names of any victims. Revell said he believes one of the people hurt is a FAMU student and another is a grandmother. Neither identification has been confirmed by the university or the families.
The FAMU homecoming shooting happened with officers close by. Revell said about two dozen officers were already in the area, and the department had its entire force working the busy weekend. Before the scene was even secure, officers carried victims to safety and drove some of them to the hospital themselves.
Investigators believe the violence started with a physical altercation between two or three people, and Revell described it as an isolated incident. Police have not said who fired, how many guns were involved, or what the fight was about.
No arrests have been made, and police say there is no person of interest. The department’s Violent Crimes Unit is leading the investigation, collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses.
“Tonight, our thoughts are with the victims and their families as they face the devastating impact of this violence,” Revell said in a statement Saturday night.
Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, who attended the homecoming parade earlier that day, called the FAMU homecoming shooting “a truly horrific and heartbreaking tragedy” in a post on X shortly after midnight.
FAMU sent out a shelter in place alert around 8:40 p.m. and urged students and visitors to avoid the area around Bragg Stadium and Perry Street. In a statement, the university offered condolences, said the shooting happened near campus, and said the campus remains safe. Homecoming events had been scheduled to run through Sunday.
