Shooting at university in Georgia leaves one person dead and five wounded

A mass shooting during homecoming weekend at Georgia’s Albany State University left one person dead and five others wounded on Saturday night, according to school officials.

Earlier Saturday in Mississippi, authorities said three people were killed and eight others were injured near Lexington, Mississippi, when at least two people fired guns at a group of several hundred people who were at an outdoor trail celebrating a high school football team’s homecoming game victory.

Albany State University’s interim president, Lawrence M Drake II, said the shootings happened on the school’s east campus, according to the Georgia television news station WAGA. He said Georgia’s state bureau of investigation (GBI) is in charge of the case.

“As always, the safety and security of our ASU students, faculty and staff are the number one priority of this institution,” Drake said in a statement Sunday.

Dougherty county coroner Michael Fowler told the Georgia news outlet WALB that a 19-year-old man from Atlanta died at Phoebe Putney memorial hospital in Albany. WALB identified the slain victim as De-Morion Tayshawn Daniels.

Albany State enrolls about 6,000 students.

As of Sunday morning, there had been more than 420 mass shootings across the US so far this year.

The nonpartisan archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.

Annually high rates of mass shootings in the US have prompted some in the country to call for more substantial federal gun control, though Congress has largely been unable or unwilling to implement such measures.

• The Associated Press contributed reporting