5 min read
Major Takeaways
Two separate shootings on the Winston-Salem State University campus Saturday night left one person dead and three others shot during homecoming weekend.
Police say it is too early to tell whether the two shootings are connected, and no arrests have been announced.
Chancellor Bonita J. Brown has canceled the remaining homecoming activities and told the campus community there is no active threat.
The Winston-Salem State shooting turned a homecoming weekend built on pride and reunion into a night of sirens, lockdown orders, and grief.
Two separate shootings broke out on campus on Saturday, November 7. One person was killed. Three others were shot and taken to a hospital.
What Police Say Happened
Winston-Salem police say the first call for help came in at about 9:45 p.m. on Saturday. Homecoming festivities were still moving across campus at that hour.
Officers locked the campus down as they swept the grounds looking for danger. Students sheltered where they were and waited for word that it was safe to move.
That word came in the early hours of Sunday. Police lifted the lockdown, students were allowed to walk back to their dorms, and police said the campus was safe.
Assistant Police Chief Jason Swaim spoke to reporters at a press conference held early Sunday morning. He confirmed that both shootings happened on campus on Saturday.
“At this point, the investigation is still very early in its preliminary stages,” Swaim said.
The Questions Police Cannot Answer Yet
Swaim said it is too early to tell whether the two shootings are connected. That single unanswered question hangs over everything else in this story.
Two shootings on one campus on the biggest social weekend of the school year could be one chain of events. They could also be separate acts of violence that landed on the same night.
Police have not released the name of the person who died. They have not said whether the person killed or the three wounded are students at the university.
The conditions of the three survivors have not been released either. Families are still waiting on basic facts about the people they love.
No suspect information has been released, and police gave no word of any arrest when reporters asked directly. What led to the gunfire and where exactly on campus each shooting took place also remain undisclosed.
The Chancellor Speaks to the Campus Family
On Sunday, Chancellor Bonita J. Brown addressed the campus community in a message titled “A Message to Our Ramily.” Ramily is the name the Winston-Salem State family calls itself.
Brown offered condolences to the family of the person killed and wished recovery for the injured. She acknowledged the fear and grief moving through the campus and the wider city.
She told students and staff that police had confirmed there is no active threat. A law enforcement presence remains on campus, and she thanked campus police, city police, and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office for their response.
Out of respect for the victims, the university canceled the rest of its homecoming schedule. The canceled events include the Fourth Quarter gathering and WSSU Day at Emmanuel Baptist Church, where a call to prayer will be held instead.
The chancellor also pointed students and staff toward counseling support the university is offering as the campus grieves. Counseling is not a footnote in a story like this. It is part of how a campus survives the days after gunfire.
A Day That Began in Celebration
Saturday had begun the way homecoming Saturdays at Black colleges are supposed to begin. Winston-Salem State hosted Fayetteville State at Bowman Gray Stadium, and the city filled with alumni, students, and supporters.
Homecoming at a Black college is more than a football game. It is a family reunion, an economic engine for local Black businesses, and a living link between the students of today and the generations who came before them.
By midnight, that same campus was a crime scene. Conversations in dorm rooms and group chats turned from celebration to grief and fear in a matter of hours.
It is a whiplash that HBCU communities have been forced to absorb too many times in recent years. Gun violence keeps colliding with the very gatherings that define Black college life.
The pain is familiar across Black college campuses this fall. Urban City Podcast covered the FAMU homecoming shooting in Tallahassee that left twelve people injured, a shooting at Virginia State University that put that campus on lockdown, and gunfire at Southern University in the same stretch of weeks.
What Happens Next
The investigation now moves at the pace of evidence, and the campus community deserves answers at every step. Names, conditions, and any word on suspects or arrests will shape what accountability looks like.
Students also deserve a clear and honest conversation about safety at the events that bring thousands of people back to campus each fall. That conversation cannot start and end with a lockdown order.
Urban City Podcast is following this story and will update it in place as police release the name of the person killed, the conditions of the three survivors, and any word on suspects or arrests.
