Witness says she helped woman shot at Lincoln University: ‘I ran over to her'

Two friends who were at the Lincoln University Homecoming event when at least one shooter opened fire spoke to NBC10 on Monday on their personal experiences during the tragedy that left one person dead and six others injured.

One of the women said she was right by the shooter when it all happened, and the other said she jumped into action to save a woman who was shot in the leg.

“It was very loud, it was like boom boom,” said Shamiyah Towns, of Delaware.

A large crowd had gathered on the campus of the first college-degree-granting historically black university (HBCU) in the country for Homecoming.

But what was supposed to be a night of celebration turned into terror.

“I was right where the shooter was, like I had to be because my ears started ringing,” Towns said.

Towns said she was standing near the International Cultural Center building when someone opened fire into a crowd of people.

She said in an instant, everything changed.

“Everyone was in survival mode, so I fell, and once I hit the ground somebody fell on top of me,” Towns said. “And my sister just grabbed me and put me in the porta potty, and I called my papa to give me a prayer because I thought that was the end. I thought I was going to die.”

All of the victims are between the ages of 20 and 25 years old, with the person killed identified as 20-year-old Jujuan Jeffers, of Wilmington, Del., Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe said.

The six injured are all expected to survive, with one of them getting shot in the leg.

“I ran over to her,” a witness who spoke to NBC10 on camera but did not want to use her name, said. “I asked if she was okay, and I saw blood coming out of her leg.”

The witness, who went to nursing school, said she saw the woman go down and immediately jumped into action.

“There was a group of girls near me, I took one girls vest from her and covered the girls gunshot wound with the vest and I applied pressure,” the witness said.

She said she helped the woman calm down after a panic attack, and waited with her until an ambulance arrived.

“My passion is to help people, so once I saw her laying on the ground, yelling, my instinct was to get up and help her,” the witness said.

The District Attorney’s office said one person was taken into custody following the shooting.

Zecqueous Morgan-Thompson, of Wilmington, Del., is in custody and facing a charge of carrying a concealed firearm without a license, but it is not yet confirmed if the gun found on him was used in the shooting.

According to court documents obtained by NBC10, Morgan-Thompson was spotted by an officer with a gun, which was loaded. He told police the gun was his mother’s and that he had brought it with him from Wilmington.

Morgan-Thompson also told police that he arrived at the university at around 4 p.m. on Saturday and had the gun on him the entire time, according to the court documents.

Investigators were working to test the gun to see if it matches evidence found at the scene, de Barrena-Sarobe said.

Investigators also believe there may be more than one shooter, de Barrena-Sarobe added.

“I feel like its just sad,” the witness said. “These victims had to go through what they go through, and its traumatizing. I’m traumatized.”

The president of Lincoln University is expected to speak on the incident on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at noon. NBC10 will be there to cover the event, as well as any other updates that develop on the mass shooting on air and online.