On January 22, four people were hospitalized after a shooting at the Harris County campus of Lone Star College, north of Houston and part of a  large state-wide community college system in Texas. No fewer than five shots were fired after an argument between two individuals escalated out of control. The shooter was 22-year-old Carlton Berry. Three of the four people currently hospitalized after the shooting, the as-of-yet unnamed man Berry was arguing with, a maintenance worker, and Berry himself, were admitted due to bullet wounds. The fourth hospitalized person is an unnamed woman who suffered from what appeared to be a heart attack due to panicking after hearing the shootings.

“If I heard gunshots on a campus, I would run away in the opposite direction as fast as I could and find a good place to hide,” said Chris Bonnewell, freshman music major.

Boonewell’s plan echoes the course of action many students at Lone Star College took. Frightened students and professors were found huddled together in closets and under tables after hearing the gunshots. 

With this shooting coming roughly a month after the Sandy Hook shooting in Newton, Conn. some students find it hard not to be a little shaken.

“Particularly here [at Washburn], I do [feel safe], but there are times I kinda question that, but overall yeah,” said Cameron Rickles, sophomore nursing student at Washburn. “It’s a small town, there’s nothing too hazardous to worry about, but it’s kinda sketchy because there’s that thought in the back of your mind that you’re not safe. I feel like you should be safe at school, no matter what school that is.”

After the shooting, the campus, home to 19,000 students, was evacuated, and Houston police officers as well as Harris County sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene to clear the buildings and deem them safe. In light of the events, the classes scheduled for the day were cancelled, though the campus was scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, January 23. The authorities at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office are still conducting their initial investigations, but for now Berry has been charged with aggravated assault.