(AP) – Man accused of having machine gun at Tuskegee University during a hail of gunfire who left one person dead and at least 16 others injured, told a federal agent that he fired his gun during the shooting but denied targeting anyone.

The new details are contained in a newly unsealed federal complaint that describes how an officer ran toward the gunfire. This officer found a dead body, then saw Jacques Myrick with a Glock pistol, the complaint states.

Myrick was later questioned by state and federal agents, who asked if he had discharged his firearm during the shooting.

“Myrick later admitted to shooting the Glock but denied shooting anyone,” wrote in the complaint a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who participated in the interview.

Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, is accused of having a weapon with a machine gun conversion device and faces a federal charge of possession of a machine gun. The complaint does not accuse him of shooting anyone. No attorney who could speak on Myrick’s behalf is listed in federal court documents, and it’s unclear from jail records whether he had one.

The complaint also details the chaotic scene and how Myrick was apprehended.

A Tuskegee police officer, one of the first to respond to reports of shootings on campusimmediately heard the gunshots, but was unable to drive his patrol car into a parking lot because it was crowded with people and cars, according to court records.

Officer Alan Ashley then left his car and ran toward the gunfire, soon finding a man dead from a gunshot wound, according to the complaint. Ashley then saw Myrick, armed with a Glock pistol, and took him into custody, the complaint states.

The municipal officer also gave the weapon to the special agent who wrote the complaint.

“During field examination, I discovered that the pistol operated like a machine gun,” the federal agent wrote.

Myrick told officers he had come from his home in Montgomery to the Tuskegee campus “looking for a party” and was with friends when the shooting began.

He said he bought the Glock at a pawn shop in Tampa, Florida, then purchased a machine gun conversion device from a seller he met through the online site Discord, the complaint states. Myrick said he had the package delivered to a vacant residence and installed the device on his gun.

The shooting happened as the school’s 100th Homecoming Week was coming to a close. A dozen victims were hit by gunfire, the others were injured as they tried to escape the chaotic scene, authorities said. Most of the injured were students.

The slain man was identified as La’Tavion Johnson, 18, of Troy, Alabama, who was not a student, the local coroner said.

The FBI joined the investigation and said it was seeking information from the public, as well as any video witnesses. He created an online site for people to upload videos.

The shooting is the latest case in which a “machine gun conversion device” has been discovered, according to police officers across the country. expressed serious concerns about. The multiplication of this type of weapon is made possible by small pieces of metal or plastic manufactured with a 3D printer or ordered online.

Guns equipped with conversion devices have been used in several mass shootings, including one that left four people dead at the same time. Sweet Sixteen Party in Alabama last year and another that left six people dead during a Bar District in Sacramento, California.

“It takes two or three seconds to insert some of these devices into a firearm and instantly turn that firearm into a machine gun,” said Steve Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives. AP Gun Report earlier this year.

The shooting shook the entire university community, said Amare’ Hardee, a senior from Tallahassee, Fla., who is president of the student government association.

“This senseless act of violence has affected each of us, directly or indirectly,” he said Sunday morning at the graduation ceremony.

Sunday’s shooting comes a little more than a year after four people were injured in a shooting at a Tuskegee University student housing complex. Two campus visitors were shot and two students were injured as they tried to leave the scene of what campus officials described as an “unsanctioned party” in September 2023, the department said. Montgomery Advertiser reported.

About 3,000 students are enrolled at the university located about 40 miles east of Montgomery, Alabama’s capital.

The university was the first historically black college to be designated a registered national landmark in 1966. It was also designated a national historic site in 1974, according to the school’s website.

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