ALTIMORE (News21USA) — A shooting disrupted a homecoming week celebration at Baltimore’s Morgan State University on Tuesday, injuring five people and prompting an after-hours closure of the historically black university.

The students remained hidden for about four hours while police went from room to room looking for suspects. No arrests were made.

Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the five victims, four men and one woman, are between 18 and 22 years old. Their injuries are not life-threatening, he told reporters at a news conference Wednesday morning.

Morgan State Police Chief Lance Hatcher said four of the victims are students at the university. Police did not release information about a suspect or suspects, and Worley said investigators did not know how many shooters were involved.

The shooting occurred shortly after the coronation of Mister & Miss Morgan State at the Murphy Fine Arts Center, as students were headed to a dance on campus.

Konnor Crowder, a sophomore from Baltimore, said he and his friends had been waiting for the coronation dance to start when they saw people running.

“First I was wondering what they were running for, then I was wondering where we should go,” he said.

Worley said police heard gunshots and several dorm windows broken, so officials initially thought there was an active shooter on campus and acted accordingly. He said they ended the shelter-in-place order around 12:30 a.m. m., after SWAT officers cleared a building where a suspect was feared hiding.

Shortly after midnight, dozens of students dressed in gowns and suits began filing out of the arts center, where they had been waiting. Many were trying to process the chaos and fear that overwhelmed a night of festivities.

Orange evidence markers were visible on the ground in front of a building next to the dormitory where the shooting occurred. Yellow crime tape surrounded the area as officers used flashlights to search for evidence.

Parents gathered in front of a police blockade at the south entrance to the campus. James Willoughby, a Morgan State student whose daughter is a freshman, said he wouldn’t leave until he saw her. “I’ll be here until I can physically see her,” he said.

Glenmore Blackwood arrived on campus after hearing her son, a senior, tell him that the shooting occurred just as the coronation concluded.

Blackwood said his son was in the arts center’s auditorium. He sang at the ceremony and planned to host a prayer service afterward.

“That’s my son. He’s going to make sure I know he’s OK,” Blackwood said. “It’s just sad. They were doing something good: an event to promote positivity, and all this negativity happens.”

Morgan State University President David Wilson said he had canceled classes Wednesday and would hold an emergency meeting Wednesday morning to decide whether other planned events will go ahead before the school’s homecoming game, which is scheduled to be played on Saturday.

«It’s unfortunate that this tragedy happened here tonight,» he said. “It will in no way define who we are as a university.”

The university, which has about 9,000 students, was founded in 1867 as the Centennial Bible Institute with the initial mission of training men for ministry, according to its website. It moved to its current site in northeast Baltimore in 1917 and was purchased by the state of Maryland in 1939 with the goal of providing more opportunities for black citizens.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott highlighted recent declines in the city’s homicide rate and said Tuesday’s shooting signals the need for national gun reform.

«We have to address this problem at the national level,» he said. «We have to take the gun issue seriously.»