2 dead, 14 injured after shooting at Texas homecoming party

GREENVILLE, Texas — Two people have been killed in a shooting at an off-campus Texas A&M University-Commerce party that also left at least 14 others injured, a sheriff’s official said.

The shooting took place just before midnight Saturday in Greenville, around 15 miles southwest of the Commerce campus, Chief Deputy Buddy Oxford of the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office said. The shooter remains at large, Oxford said.

He said the shooting began about 15 minutes after deputies arrived outside the venue, responding to reports of illegal parking. 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 or 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 had received three victims of the shooting, all of whom were in critical condition. The hospital is around 50 miles west of Greenville.

The shooting came as the university east of Dallas celebrated homecoming weekend. The event was a homecoming party, but wasn’t a school-sanctioned event, Oxford and university officials said. The chief deputy said officers at the scene estimated at least 750 people were at the party.

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.

The sheriff’s office plans to hold another press conference at 8 a.m. Sunday.