11 Wounded, Including 6 Children, in Shooting After Florida A&M Homecoming Game
Gunfire broke out near Florida A&M University's Bragg Memorial Stadium on Saturday night after the homecoming game, wounding 11 people by gunfire, six of them children, and injuring a 12th person who was hurt while fleeing, Tallahassee police said.
Shots were fired just before 8 p.m. ET on Saturday near Perry and Manatee streets, behind Bragg Memorial Stadium in Tallahassee, after Florida A&M University’s homecoming game, police said. Eleven people were wounded by gunfire, six of them children. A 12th person, the grandmother of one of those shot, was injured while fleeing.
The youngest person shot was 11, and one of the wounded is a Florida A&M student, police said. By Sunday morning, five of the wounded had been released from the hospital and six remained, one in critical condition. Police have not released the names of the victims.
No arrest announced, and a fight came first
No one had been arrested as of Sunday morning, and police had not identified suspects or persons of interest. Investigators believe the shooting grew out of a physical fight between two or three people, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said, but police have not said what set the fight off. The department’s Violent Crimes Unit took over the investigation, and police have not offered a motive.
About two hours before the shooting, more than 20,000 fans had filled the stadium to watch the Rattlers lose to Arkansas-Pine Bluff 31-28, and the streets around the stadium were still crowded with students, alumni and families. Revell said the crowd was so thick that ambulances and patrol cars could not reach the wounded. “We had officers who were picking up victims and carrying them in their arms to transport because they couldn’t get through the mass of people,” he said. The scene was declared secure at about 9:45 p.m. ET. The university warned people to stay away from the stadium and Perry Street or to shelter in place if they were nearby, and later said its campus was safe.
A community response
Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey called the shooting a “truly horrific and heartbreaking tragedy” on social media. “Tonight and in the days ahead, the FAMU family is not alone,” he wrote. “Our entire community stands with you.” Revell said at a news conference shortly after midnight: “It is especially heartbreaking to know that children are among those injured.”
Homecoming is one of the biggest weekends of the year at Florida A&M, a historically Black university of nearly 10,000 students, and a week of events had drawn alumni and families back to campus. Tallahassee has endured other shootings near its universities in recent years. In April 2025, a gunman killed two people and wounded six others at Florida State University’s student union, about two miles from Saturday’s shooting.
Reporting based on coverage by USA Today and Reuters.
