TUSKEGEE, Ala. — A Tuskegee University student from Storm Lake, Iowa is still trying to piece together what happened the night of the school's homecoming weekend shooting.
The incident killed a teenager and injured 16 other people. Jaquez Myrick, 25, was arrested in connection to the shooting. He currently faces a federal charge for possession of a machine gun.
Freshman Sid Guynn described the university as a ghost town after the shooting. Most students are from Atlanta or other nearby cities and were able to drive home after the tragedy. However, Guynn said going home isn’t an option for him as Storm Lake is about 1,200 miles away.
Guynn was caught in the crossfire of the shooter, and said he heard about 100 shots.
“I guess it kind of lowered the homecoming status, homecoming rating,” he said.
It all started when a white car pulled in front of a homecoming party he was headed to.
“The car just waited for about 15 seconds and shots started going off,” Guynn said. “As soon as the shots started going off, I jumped over a crowd of people.”
Guynn had to duck and hide under a car. He waited for a few minutes and then ran back to his dorm. At that point he realized he was missing his phone and his brother, who was visiting from Chicago.
“I was just trying to call my brother to see if he was good, because he was visiting,” Guynn said. “He didn’t know where he was.”
He eventually found his brother on the way back to the party, but he doesn’t remember exactly when or where.
“The gunfire didn't stop till after I found my brother,” Guynn said. “I don't know. Things were moving real fast that night.”
Even with the traumatic experience, Guynn said the shooting doesn’t diminish the fact that Tuskegee is his home.
“Some people dream of being at Tuskegee,” Guynn said. “I'm not going to downgrade the fact that a shooting happened at Tuskegee. It’s still a wonderful school, and it's still a good place to live.”
Guynn only received a few scrapes from crawling on broken glass, and his brother wasn’t injured at all.