One person was reported dead and four others were hurt after a gunman opened fire at a McDonald’s restaurant near Auburn University in Alabama.
Citing preliminary reports from Auburn police and Fox News , local network WSTB Radio wrote that the incident took place at around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday when the gunman, who has yet to be identified by authorities, entered the McDonald’s near the Auburn campus and began shooting. Names of the victims have yet to be released, but the report added that the sole fatality was a 20-year-old man from the city of Tuskegee, Alabama. The wounded individuals included a 21-year-old male Auburn student originally from Hilton Head, South Carolina, two teenage boys aged 16- and 17-years-old, and a 19-year-old woman.
As further noted by WSTB Radio , the three teenagers who were injured all hailed from Opelika, Alabama. The 16-year-old boy’s wounds were reported as “serious,” while the other two teens and the 21-year-old Auburn student had “non-life-threatening” injuries, according to police.
“Auburn Police Officers were already in the immediate vicinity of the call dispersing a large crowd. Officers confirmed shots were being fired and located several victims,” read a statement from Auburn police.
A separate report from Fox News stated that the Alabama shooting took place after the Auburn Tigers football team defeated the Alabama State Hornets and students from the former school celebrated their team’s victory. According to the Auburn University emergency notification Twitter account, there have been no reports that the shooter poses an active threat to the campus community. School officials added in the tweet that police are currently investigating the shooting and that students or employees who notice anything suspicious on campus should report the matter to authorities.
1 dead, 4 injured after shooting at McDonald’s near Auburn University > https://t.co/s8dkysc9NX pic.twitter.com/wWZ3NOF6ZK
— FOX5 Las Vegas (@FOX5Vegas) September 9, 2018
Based on preliminary investigations, police believe that the shooting did not take place at random, as it happened following an altercation that apparently erupted “just prior to [the] exchange of gunfire” at the McDonald’s restaurant.
The incident on Sunday morning came just one week after another shooting in Alabama injured several young people. As previously reported by AL.com , seven people were shot and another person injured their knee at a teen party in the Birmingham club WorkPlay last Sunday, September 2. At the time of the report, all of the victims, who were mostly in their teens, were expected to make a successful recovery, though one of the injured people was among a group of teens who were questioned by police about their alleged roles in the shooting.
As of this writing, the suspect in the Auburn McDonald’s shooting remains at large.
