Albany State University isn't exactly a household name. It has some notable alumni, such as Jo Marie Payton, who played the mother on the TV show Family Matters, and Alice Coachman, the first African-American woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
Oh, and it's also the site of a shooting that left one person dead and six others injured as well as being located in my hometown, where I still live.
Unsurprisingly, the media has latched onto this because, in fairness, it's news. Here's CNN's report on it:
Albany State University was filled with dancing, cheers and celebration Saturday after the Golden Rams took victory in the university’s homecoming game.
Hours later, a shooting on the school’s campus in southwest Georgia left one person dead and multiple others injured, university officials said.
“We have been informed that six individuals have sustained injuries. Sadly, one has been reported deceased,” the university said Sunday in a statement.
The shooting took place around 8:50 p.m. Saturday, according to the university, around the time a “Back to the Yard Celebration Concert” was taking place on the lower East Campus as part of the school’s homecoming week festivities.
Now, this is a horrible tragedy. From my yard, I could hear the marching band during the game, I live that close to the campus.
So I know a bit about this awful incident that's not going to make it in the media reports.
For one thing, Albany State has two campuses, but this one happened at the main campus in what we call East Albany. I know the campus well enough, having driven by it for decades, but I haven't spent a lot of time on the campus itself. Why? Because it's fenced in and tightly secured. You have to gain admittance ordinarily by having a guard permit you to drive on campus.
No doubt, those rules were suspended due to the homecoming celebration.
But that security exists for a reason. It's not that Albany State students are known for being particularly rowdy. They're not. In fact, I rarely hear of them misbehaving at all beyond what you might find at any other university in the country.
The issue is that the college is located in a part of town that has a bit of a reputation as being on the rougher side. Within walking distance are a number of neighborhoods that tend to be higher crime areas, where gang activity is common, and where things like shootings happen all the time.
Homecoming is a big event here in Albany, though, so it seems Albany State threw open the gates of the campus and just let anyone in.
That shouldn't be a bad move. Especially since they have homecoming every year, just like every other school in the country. Nothing like this shooting has ever happened. I can't say there's never been violence before, mind you. I'm sure there have been the odd fights or whatever, simply because people are people, emotions are high, and we live in a world where some people think the answer to everything is violence.
But this time, it did.
I'm sure we'll learn more about what happened in the coming days and weeks, but one thing I do know is that the odds of the shooter or shooters having guns lawfully are ridiculously low.
Not that anyone is going to report that.
