One dead, six others shot at Lincoln University
One person with a gun was taken into custody but there may have been more than one shooter, authorities said.
A 25-year-old man from Wilmington was killed and six others — including a student and an alum — were injured in a shooting Saturday night at Lincoln University, which was celebrating homecoming weekend, according to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.
The man killed was Jujuan Jeffers, 25, of Wilmington, District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe said.
The other six shooting victims, all age 20 to 25, are expected to survive, de Barrena-Sarobe said at a news conference on campus early Sunday evening.
Zecqueous Morgan-Thompson, 21, of Wilmington, was charged with carrying a concealed firearm without a license, de Barrena-Sarobe said. Authorities are investigating whether the gun found on Morgan-Thompson was used in the shooting, he said, but also said authorities suspect there were multiple shooters.
Morgan-Thompson was being held at Chester County prison after his bail was set at $25,000 bail Sunday evening, according to court records. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
“We don’t have a lot of answers about exactly what happened. What I will tell you is that today we’re operating as if this is not an incident where someone came in with the design to inflict mass damage on a college campus,” de Barrena-Sarobe told reporters during a news conference earlier on Sunday.
He urged anyone with video from the scene or other information that could help the investigation to contact the FBI, and he repeated that request at the evening news conference. Lincoln which enrolls about 1,650 students, is the first degree-granting historically Black university in the nation.
The shooting occurred at the university’s International Cultural Center building about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, leading to a chaotic scene.
“It was a very packed scene,” said Dana Moore, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office. “The festivities had gone on. ... It was all fun, football game, tailgate, a lot people had set up tents. And then chaos ensued.”
Moore declined to say where the injured were being treated or release their identities.
“We are protecting all identities and locations at this time,” she said.
The district attorney did not release other information about the injured at the evening press conference but said one victim was a student and one was an alumnus. The rest, he said, do not have direct affiliation with the university.
“Everyone on campus is a victim in this,” he said, emphasizing the importance of healing.
Josh Maxwell, chair of the Chester County Commissioners and an adjunct professor at Lincoln, said he knew the student who was shot and had spoken with her Sunday.
“She said she’s had better days but she’ll be fine,” he said, noting that he planned to visit her on Monday. “She’s a phenomenal student, just an extraordinarily focused, really good kid who is hitting all the marks to have a really good life. And I expect that’s not going to be interrupted.”
Maxwell said students choose Lincoln to get a good education.
“There’s no downtown to walk to or bars, just the quiet borough of Oxford and beautiful farmland,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “The fact that violence could reach them here, and personally one of my students, tears at my heart.”
The university announced in a statement Sunday afternoon that it would suspend classes Monday “for a day of healing and reflection,” though the school would remain open and staff and counseling would be available to help students and faculty.
The university has invited the campus community to gather at noon in the Historic District, between Vail and Amos Halls, for “a moment of reflection, connection, and collective healing.”
“Gun violence happens far too often in our country, and we are heartbroken that Lincoln University and its students are among the latest victims of such senseless violence,” the school said in the statement.
On campus Sunday, police tape draped a parking lot strewn with trash — showing a scene of homecoming revelry abruptly abandoned.
Vanessa Ayllon, who lives across the street, said she saw the chaos on her Ring doorbell camera.
“All I see is people running and just getting into cars, just trying to leave,” Ayllon said. “It was very hectic.”
She said cars were traveling in the same direction in both lanes on the street, nearly causing a crash as people fled.
Terina Clark, 61, of West Philadelphia, graduated from Lincoln in 1987 and said she came to homecoming weekend to reconnect with old friends. They left shortly before the shooting, Clark said, frustrated by a crowded scene where she said alcohol flowed freely and people rolled joints and smoked marijuana not far from security officers.
“The crowds grew like you were going to a stadium game,” Clark said, adding she wanted to see school officials held responsible for allowing things to get out of control.
“Parents trust these kids within these walls,” Clark said. “The walls have to control what comes in.”
Delaware State University students Darius Lawson and Jake Ferguson, who attended the Saturday night homecoming, returned to Lincoln’s campus Sunday to try to retrieve a friend’s purse that was left behind in the woods as people fled the gunfire. The two were turned away by campus police who told them the purse was now part of a crime scene.
“Everyone just started running and falling,” said Lawson, 21. He said he saw people lying on the ground after the gunfire, as ambulances arrived.
Lawson called it a sad end to what had been a great party. He added that Saturday wasn’t the first time he attended a homecoming party marred by violence: Last year he attended celebrations at North Carolina Central University, where two shootings occurred.
University officials, including Henry Lancaster II, a 1976 graduate and member of the board of trustees, were mum on details about the shooting when reached Sunday.
Marc Partee, Lincoln University police chief, declined to answer any questions about the shooting or estimate how many people were on campus at the time. The incident happened about a half hour before festivities were due to end at 10 p.m., said Partee, who has worked at the school since 2019.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, who received an honorary degree from Lincoln in 2023, said the state had “offered its full support” to the university and local police.
“Join Lori and me in praying for the Lincoln University community,” he said on X late Saturday.
Lincoln, one of four so-called state-related colleges in Pennsylvania, is in rural Chester County, about 45 miles southwest of Philadelphia.
The university’s alumni association said in a Facebook post Sunday morning that it was sending “thoughts and prayers to Lincoln University, our students, and the victims of last night’s tragic and senseless act of violence during Homecoming.”
“Homecoming should be a time of joy and unity,” the Alumni Association of Lincoln University posted. “Today, we stand together in grief, in strength, and in unwavering support of our beloved alma mater.”
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is a Lincoln alumna, and was on campus last week, posting to social media Saturday, “It was an honor to help kick off @LincolnUofPA‘s Homecoming earlier this week — celebrating 171 years of Black excellence and The Lincolnian’s 100th anniversary.”
Parker did not immediately reply to a request for comment Sunday.
She’s among several notable Lincoln alumni, a list which includes Thurgood Marshall, the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice; Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes; Robert N.C. Nix, Sr., the first Black lawmaker from Pennsylvania to serve in Congress; Sheila Oliver, former New Jersey lieutenant governor and the first Black woman to serve as speaker of the New Jersey general assembly; and Harry W. Bass, the first Black Pennsylvania state legislator.
The school has achieved some milestones in recent years. The university in 2020 received a $20 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, which became the largest single gift in the school’s history.
President Brenda A. Allen at that time called the gift “transformational” for the then-2,100-student school and said it would fund new investments in teaching, research, and faculty development, as well as support need-based scholarships.
In 2021, Allen was named one of the 10 most dominant historically Black college leaders by a national nonprofit organization that advocates for the schools, and in May, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore delivered the commencement address at Lincoln.
But the university also has weathered controversy, including an internal battle over Allen’s leadership in 2020. The board attempted to oust her, but later decided to negotiate a new contract with her.
The school also has been the scene of prior shooting incidents.
In 2023, two people were shot inside a residential building on campus; the victims were not students but had been visiting the school. And in 2015, the campus tightened security after shots were fired in a dorm, though no one was hurt in the incident.
Staff writer Kristen A. Graham contributed to this article, which also contains information from the Associated Press.