On Friday, more than a thousand Virginia State University freshmen gathered on campus for a ceremony celebrating the start of their college careers. They listened to life advice from former NFL quarterback Cam Newton, who told them to pursue their grandest goals. They imagined what their first college classes would be like, scheduled to start Monday. They received Trojan pins, symbolizing the expectation that all of them would gather again one day to graduate.
“#GreaterHappensHere,” the school posted on Facebook.
Then, shortly after midnight, gunfire erupted a quarter-mile away, just outside residence halls where students slept.
Five people were shot, leaving one critically wounded, in an incident that involved “multiple suspects,” according to the university. It noted that one of the four people with non-life-threatening injuries was a student.
Officers responded to the scene at 1:28 a.m., according to authorities, and the campus in Petersburg, Virginia, remained locked down past dawn.
On Saturday morning, the university warned that a significant law enforcement presence remained at the 3300 block of Boisseau Street. Chesterfield County Police are leading the investigation, with help from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
On the school’s Facebook page, worried parents posted prayers and frustrations, despondent that students’ first weekend was marred by violence.
“This is sad. I was just on campus yesterday with my son,” one woman wrote.
“We just dropped our daughter off hours before this happened,” wrote another. “There needs to be heightened security for the campus. Period.”
One alumnus wrote that he and his wife had visited campus for a “stroll down ‘beautiful memories lane.’”
“When these type of events happen it’s terrifying to know that students, faculty, and visitors cannot enjoy the same level of peace that we had while we were there,” he added. “Prayers for the VSU community, immediate and extended.”
About 5,700 students attend Virginia State, a historically Black college and university a half-hour drive from Richmond.
The school has endured several incidents of gun violence on or near its campus in recent years. In 2024, it locked down at least three times because of gunfire that left five people, including a teenager, injured. In 2025, someone was shot in the leg near a campus basketball court, and a man was killed in a parking lot close to the school.
Virginia State also locked down and canceled classes in September because it and several other HBCUs across the country received violent threats.
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