Multiple HBCUs under lockdown after receiving threats amid rising campus security concerns
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(NEW YORK) — Multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are on lockdown after receiving potential threats on Thursday, including Alabama State University, Virginia State University, Hampton University in Virginia, Southern University in Louisiana, and Clark Atlanta University in Georgia.
Spelman College, located near Clark Atlanta University, has also implemented shelter-in-place protocols as a precautionary measure due to its proximity.
Hampton University ceased all “nonessential” activity, including athletic events, on Thursday for the remainder of the day and Friday, according to the school’s website.
In a post on the Virginia State University Facebook page, the school said, “out of an abundance of caution, VSU remains on lockdown.”
Southern University in Louisiana is on lockdown, according to the school’s post on X. The school said the lockdown applies to its entire Baton Rouge landmass, which includes its Law Center. The community is encouraged to “shelter in place until further notice.”
ABC News obtained an email that was sent to the Virginia State University community on Thursday. In the message, VSU students, faculty and staff are asked to remain on lockdown while campus police, and local, state and federal law enforcement investigate the credibility of the threat that was received.
According to the email, no injuries have been reported, outdoor movement has been limited to essential activities, classes and extra-curricular activities have been canceled for the afternoon, and additional security personnel are monitoring VSU locations.
The lockdown measures come in the wake of the shooting at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, where 31-year-old right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk was killed at his speaking engagement on campus.
School officials at Hampton and Alabama State confirmed to ABC News that there have been no physical incidents toward students and faculty. It is unclear what type of threat was made to the schools at this time. The schools stressed “if you see something, say something,” asking for their communities to alert the authorities to any suspicious activity.
The alleged threats follow a history of threats to HBCUs in the past several years. In 2022, multiple schools received anonymous bomb threats, causing shelter-in-place notices or evacuations of the majority-Black institutions.
However, no real bombs were found after each incident. At the time, the FBI identified one juvenile believed to be responsible for a “majority” of the “racially motivated” threats.
At least five people have been killed and 30 others injured in shootings across Chicago over Labor Day weekend, including a drive-by attack that left seven victims wounded late Saturday night, according to police.
The violent holiday weekend came as President Donald Trump renewed threats to send federal agents and National Guard troops to Chicago over the objections of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Trump on Saturday sent a warning to the Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in a post on his social media platform, referencing recent crime in Chicago and saying Pritzker “better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!”
Illinois Gov. Pritzker, a Democrat, responded in a news conference a week ago to an earlier Trump threat to “straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C.,” by saying that the president’s plan was “unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American.”
Mayor Johnson responded last week by saying in part that he had “grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the city of Chicago,” and calling Trump’s approach “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.” Johnson also said that deploying the National Guard in Chicago could “inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement.”
On Saturday, Mayor Johnson signed an executive order dubbed the “Protecting Chicago Initiative,” which he described in a news conference as “the most sweeping campaign of any city in the country to protect ourselves from the threats and actions of this out-of-control administration,” and which “directs our department of law to pursue any and every legal mechanism to hold this administration accountable for violating the rights of Chicagoans.”
“We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government,” Johnson said, in part. “We take these threats seriously and we find ourselves in a position where we must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach.”
At least 20 separate shootings occurred in Chicago between 10:32 p.m. Friday and 3 a.m. Sunday morning, according to a review by ABC News of police incident reports published online.
The victims included a 17-year-old girl who was inside her home when a bullet came through a front window and hit her in the arm, a 31-year-old man who was shot in the leg after getting caught in the crossfire of gunmen shooting at each other from two vehicles, and a 25-year-old woman who was shot and injured while driving down a street, all according to the incident reports.
Fewer than five hours after Trump posted a message on social media on Saturday criticizing Pritzker’s handling of crime in Chicago, a mass shooting occurred in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side that left seven people wounded.
“He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!,” Trump said in his post about Pritzker.
The shooting in Bronzeville occurred about 11:10 p.m. on Saturday on South State Street, according to police. A group of people were gathered outside in the area when a vehicle drove by and at least one occupant opened fire on the crowd. All seven people shot, five men and two women ranging in age from 28 to 32, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries to their lower extremities, police said. No suspects have been arrested.
The first of five homicides that police say occurred over the long holiday weekend happened at 11:56 p.m. on Friday at the South Shore apartment complex on East Essex Street, where two women were discovered shot, according to police.
A 25-year-old woman was found in the apartment suffering from two gunshot wounds to her stomach and one to her leg, according to a police incident report. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, according to authorities. The victim’s name was not immediately released.
The second victim, a 23-year-old woman, suffered gunshot wounds to both legs and was in fair condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Investigators were interviewing a person of interest in the East Essex Street homicide but no arrests have been announced, according to police.
Elsewhere, two men were shot, one fatally, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago around 11 a.m. on Saturday, according to police. The victims were standing outside on North Sawyer Avenue when a dark SUV approached them and a gunman exited the vehicle and opened fire, according to a police incident report.
A 29-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was shot multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police. The second victim, a 32-year-old man, suffered a gunshot wound to his right side and was in stable condition at Mount Sinai, police said. No arrests have been announced in the incident.
Also on Saturday, gunfire erupted in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood. Around 7:46 p.m., a 43-year-old woman was standing outside on E. 131st Street when five armed men approached her and opened fire, striking her multiple times, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Christ Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.
No arrests have been announced in the Altgeld Gardens homicide.
Around 1:39 a.m. on Sunday, a 46-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was killed in a triple shooting that occurred in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago’s Lower West Side, according to police. The victims were standing on West 17th Street when a gunman walked up to them and opened fire, police said.
The two other victims, a 41-year-old man and a 43-year-old man, suffered gunshot wounds to their legs and were in good condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.
Around 2:52 a.m. on Sunday, a 33-year-old man was killed in the West Inglewood neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago, police said. The victim got into a argument inside a residence with a man who shot him in the head, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. No arrests were announced.
The series of shootings came after President Donald Trump said last week that he is prepared to order National Guard troops to American cities in addition to those in the nation’s capital, but that he wanted local officials to request his help.
Trump threatened to make Chicago the next city he would target after he declared what he said was a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C., and he put the city’s police force under federal control on Aug. 11.
Violent crime in Chicago has dropped significantly in the first half of the year, according to official data released by the city. Shootings are down 37% and homicides have dropped by 32% compared to the first half of 2024, while total violence crime dropped by over 22%, according to the crime statistics.
“Do not come to Chicago, you are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Pritzker further said in response to Trump during a news conference last week. “Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city to punish its dissidents and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is – a dangerous power-grab.”
(WASHINGTON) — In the wake of the flooding event in central Texas, some governors and mayors are raising concerns over how current or potential cuts to agencies that are part of the federal government’s response to major weather events will impact how effectively the government can respond in the future.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the latter of which oversees the National Weather Service — have lost hundreds of staff members through layoffs or early-retirement programs, and both face the potential of budget cuts. Budget cuts to NOAA are mostly directed at its climate programs, not forecasting.
Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, speaking with ABC News on Monday, told ABC News that he still feels FEMA helps states like his effectively respond to emergencies and assists through resources such as extra rescue teams and helicopters.
Beshear said he is also concerned about cuts at the National Weather Service.
“The Kentuckians who work for the National Weather Service do an amazing job, and even short staffed, and they are short staffed … I stay awake at night wondering when we don’t have full coverage, or wondering when someone is so tired from how hard they’ve worked, if something’s going to get missed and we’re going to be less safe the next time,” he said.
Beshear emphasized that he did not want to speculate about if any cuts or vacant positions impacted the emergency response in Texas, adding “that needs to ultimately be a fact-based question that’s not politicized, because at a time when this many families are hurting, the last thing they need is a political back and forth.”
There has been no indication of any staffing issues or other concerns related to FEMA, NOAA or NWS connected to the flooding event in central Texas. NOAA told ABC News on Tuesday that NWS planned for extra staffing at the NWS Austin/San Antonio local office ahead of the event and that the local office had five NWS employees working compared to the two who would normally be scheduled.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees FEMA, told the FEMA Advisory Council on Wednesday that how FEMA responded “to Texas is exactly how President Trump imagined that this agency would operate, immediately making decisions, getting them resources and dollars that they need.”
Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, speaking to reporters on Wednesday after a meeting of the FEMA Review Council, responded to a question about uncertainty over federal funds being interrupted during a potential future disaster by emphasizing his faith in the government’s ability to respond and to get funds states need to them.
“Do you think the president of the United States or members of Congress, certainly those in the Senate, of affected states, would not allow the money to get where it needs to be?” Landry told reporters.
Landry added later, “I am not convinced that the federal government is not going to be there when we need it … It’s not like we’re taking the federal government completely out of the process. What we’re trying to do, what I think they’re trying to do, and certainly what I am advocating for, is a more streamlined process.”
Some mayors shared their concerns about cuts to FEMA and NOAA with ABC News.
Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri, a Democrat, said he is very concerned about staffing cuts at NWS given frequent flooding in his city. Those cuts have to be, he said, “one of the most backward things that this country could possibly do … it can’t just be the television meteorologists who rely on information from the National Weather Service.”
But Mayor Dan Davis, the Republican mayor of the city of Manvel, Texas, told ABC News that his city has dealt with hurricanes and other weather events using resources they already have — including a combination of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, the National Weather Service and local agencies and meteorologists. The city also has a full-time staff emergency management coordinator.
He also said he believes the state can provide funding for systems that can help with the city’s emergency response, as long as municipalities apply for those grants. He said, as hurricane season approaches, Manvel secured a grant at the Texas Department of Emergency Management for backup generators for its critical infrastructure.
While Manvel was not impacted by the dramatic flooding in central Texas, the tragedy has rippled across the state.
“You just start tearing up and crying, because I have a daughter that’s 9 years old, and my daughter very well could have been at that camp,” he said.
D.C. Reeves, the Republican mayor of Pensacola, Florida, acknowledged that cuts or changes at the agencies are “a big part of our conversation. It’s a timely question.”
The city just recently introduced its first city emergency coordinator, he added, separating out that role from what used to be done by the city’s fire chief so that the city can be more prepared to manage emergencies.
Florida cities work heavily with county-by-county emergency operation centers as well, he said, adding that “if we ever had a hurricane bearing down on us, or any type of weather event, they are the point person.”
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Kyle Reiman and Dan Peck contributed to this report.
Hurricane Erin – The Fifth Named Storm Map/ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Erin, now a Category 2 hurricane, has prompted a tropical storm watch for North Carolina’s Outer Banks and is expected to bring dangerous waves and rip currents to beaches along the East Coast.
Here’s the latest forecast:
The Outer Banks
While the storm won’t make landfall on the East Coast, it has prompted mandatory evacuations for some Outer Banks residents and visitors.
The Outer Banks is forecast to get heavy rain Wednesday night into Thursday and winds over 40 mph.
A storm surge watch and a high surf advisory have been issued, with destructive, large breaking waves up to 20 feet in the forecast. Coastal damage is likely from large waves destroying protective dunes. The flooding will also extend inland, likely impacting roads.
Tracking Erin
Dangerous rip currents and large waves are forecast for the East Coast through Friday.
The popular beach towns of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and Wildwood, New Jersey, banned swimming on Monday due to the rough surf.
More than 50 people were rescued from the ocean at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, on Monday local officials said, and no swimming is recommended at Wrightsville Beach from Tuesday though Friday.
On Tuesday, waves will pick up along the East Coast, with Florida to the Outer Banks facing the worst conditions.
By Wednesday, the waves will increase along the Carolinas as Erin makes its closest pass to the Outer Banks Wednesday night into Thursday.
On Thursday, the high surf will arrive to beaches in the Mid-Atlantic and New England. A high surf advisory is also posted for portions of New Jersey, Long Island and Massachusetts.
