From Blacksburg, Virginia:
Multiple people were shot late Friday night in Blacksburg, Virginia, a college town that was shattered by one of the worst shootings in U.S. history nearly 15 years ago.
Authorities were pursuing up to four suspects, according to Montgomery County Public Safety scanner traffic, following initial reports of an active shooter. Multiple people were taken to local hospitals, police said, but didn’t share additional information about how many people or the extent of their injuries.
“Multiple law enforcement agencies are assisting in the area and following up on leads,” Blacksburg Police said in a statement early Saturday.
On Twitter, Virginia Tech urged students to “stay inside” and “call 911 for help” on Twitter. The campus was on lockdown. There were shots reported outside the Newman Library on campus around 1:25 a.m., according to scanner traffic.
It’s the second high-profile shooting this week in Virginia. A former student on Tuesday allegedly shot and killed two campus officers at Bridgewater College, a small private school about 135 miles from Blacksburg.
Bridgewater College police officer John E. Painter, 55, and campus safety officer Vashon “JJ” A. Jefferson, 48, were killed after responding to reports of a suspicious man on campus.
From Aurora, Colorado:
One person killed and 2 wounded in shooting inside a church in Aurora, Colorado, police say.
The suspect who shot and killed a woman and injured two others in a church Friday night in Aurora, Colorado, knew at least one of the victims, police said.The “exact relationship is not going to be released at this point,” Aurora Police spokesperson Matthew Longshore said during a news conference. “It wasn’t just a random shooting inside this church,” he said. The shooting unfolded at the Iglesia Faro De Luz Church around 8 p.m. local time, according to tweets from the Aurora Police Department. The church was hosting an event attended by about 15 to 20 people when the shooting happened, police said in a news release.
A 36-year-old woman, a 42-year-old man and a 40-year-old man were suffering from apparent gunshot injuries when officers arrived at the church, police said. The woman died at the scene, and the two men were taken to a hospital, according to authorities. Another adult, who was not shot, was also to taken to a hospital for other medical reasons, police said.