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Police: 2 shootings at Delaware State University, 3 wounded

Three people were shot during the school's annual Field Day cookout. Another shooting was reported five hours later.

By Doug G. Ware

DOVER, Del., April 19 (UPI) -- Authorities are investigating two separate shootings within several hours of each other this weekend at a university in Delaware, police said Sunday.

The first shooting, investigators said, occurred Saturday evening during an annual school-sanctioned Greek cookout on the campus of Delaware State University in Dover. The cookout was part of what the school calls Field Day.

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Three people were wounded and taken to the hospital, where they were reported to be in stable condition.

"One guy was on the ground bleeding out," a witness said in a report by NBC Philadelphia. "[Another] guy was limping."

The gunman was described as a black man with dreadlocks who escaped the scene in a dark sedan. Police armed with assault rifles responded and a department helicopter hovered over the campus in the immediate aftermath and search for the gunman.

The second shooting occurred about five hours later in the parking lot of an off-campus apartment complex, police said. No one was injured in the subsequent gunfire.

For a time immediately after the gunfire, officials alerted residents at the complex and urged them to remain inside their apartments. Outsiders were also asked to leave the campus immediately after the shootings, a school official said.

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Investigators are trying to determine if the shootings are related, and whether there is one or two gunmen. Officials also aren't certain whether the gunmen or victims are students at Delaware State. No arrests had been made as of Sunday afternoon.

"The safety of our students continues to be paramount and our police will aggressively continue their investigation until an arrest or arrests are made in this shooting incident," Delaware State University President Harry L. Williams said.

In November, a student was shot in the chest in what police said was a drug-related robbery near the Delaware State campus.

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