Incident on TSU Campus

Dear Texas Southern University students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends:

You may have heard that an incident occurred on the edge of the Texas Southern University campus Wednesday night, which is currently being investigated by the Houston Police Department.  According to detectives, six individuals attending a community-hosted event on the campus were shot in what is believed to be the result of an earlier altercation that took place last week between individuals from the Fresno and Missouri City area, which are 20+ miles southwest of Texas Southern. The injured were taken to area hospitals where their injuries were deemed serious but not life-threatening. A TSU student was among the injured. He was wounded in the leg and was released to his home from the hospital. All the other individuals wounded in the incident are from Missouri City.

Though this appears to be an isolated incident that unfortunately grew from an occurrence 20 miles away from the campus, it has a direct impact on our university and may raise some concerns on the part of our students and their parents, as well as faculty and staff. We want to assure our University community and the students and parents who are about to become part of Texas Southern University that we are working diligently to strengthen our campus security and enhance the safety of everyone attending classes or visiting our campus.

During the past year, we have made the following improvements to our security systems: 

 

The Department of Public Safety at TSU will continue to assist Houston Police in their investigation of the incident.

Wednesday’s incident occurred just after the completion of a community event developed and hosted by private citizens and community organizations that included the distribution of school supplies and other community-based resources. 

Texas Southern University is proud to serve as a venue to important community events, particularly those benefitting our students and academic programs. Nonetheless, a moratorium is being placed on all outside groups requesting use of Texas Southern facilities while we undergo a complete review of our policies and requirements for use of our facilities and campus. 

We absolutely believe that the Texas Southern campus remains safe and that this is an isolated tragic incident. We are committed to ensuring the safety of all members of our community and will continue to identify ways that we can increase the security of our campus. 

Sincerely,

 

John M. Rudley , President