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TSU shooting: 1 dead, 1 wounded in third shooting this week at Houston campus

"I came here to get an education, not to walk around with a bulletproof vest on," TSU student Malik Currie said after Friday's shooting -- the third at the school this week.

By Doug G. Ware

HOUSTON, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Two people were shot and one died Friday after gunfire at an housing complex at Texas Southern University, in the third shooting on the campus this week alone.

The shooting occurred at 11:30 a.m. at the University Courtyard Apartments, police said. One victim died after being flown to a Houston hospital. The extent of the other victim's injuries was not immediately revealed, but officials said the student is expected to survive.

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Authorities said they have detained two people for questioning in the case, and a third suspect is being sought, KHOU-TV reported.

Police said the three suspects approached both victims in the complex's parking lot and shot them.

"He was a beautiful young man, young African-American man, a freshman trying to get his life together," John Rudley, Texas Southern University's president, said of the dead student. "That's what I can tell you about him. I wish he was still here."

Investigators have not yet addressed a possible motive for the shootings. However, they said it may have been possible retribution for another shooting that occurred at the complex overnight Friday. A student received minor injuries in that incident. A third shooting occurred earlier in the week.

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"All staff are asked to remain in offices -- students to remain in classrooms until further notice," the school said in a statement on its website immediately after the shootings.

Officials said the apartment complex was evacuated and the campus was placed on lockdown as police searched for the suspects. Classes were also canceled for the day.

"It's not what I bargained for," student Malik Currie, who lives in the apartment complex, told KHOU. "I came here to get an education, not to walk around with a bulletproof vest on."

In response to this week's shootings, Rudley said part of the problem may be the number of students who carry firearms -- as the result of a new Texas law that allows concealed carry permit holders to take guns into more areas of campuses.

"Too many guns are accessible to students and to people in general in our community," he said. "I was interviewing students, they told me a gun only costs 100 to 300 dollars and everybody can get one. So we are dealing with it here."

The shooting near TSU occurred hours after another shooting at Northern Arizona University on Friday -- and a short time before President Barack Obama was set to visit with families of victims in Oregon, who were killed and wounded a week ago at Umpqua Community College.

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"I don't want to be the in the position that we have to explain why our students are dying," Rudley said. "Like President Obama says, this is getting to be too regular."

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