It was the second fatal shooting on a U.S. college campus on Friday.
The gunfire outside the University Courtyard dormitory occurred at 11:35 a.m. local time, according to Eva Pickens, the school’s associate vice president of communications.
The dead student was an 18-year-old freshman from Houston, according to Pickens. His identity is being withheld pending notification of his family. The second victim was in stable condition at a Houston-area hospital, she said.
“It’s crazy,” Pickens said. “It’s broad daylight.”
School officials initially said that three “persons of interest” had been detained by Houston police. In a statement issued later Friday, the school said only two were in custody.
The suspected shooter remains at large, according to the university statement.
It was not clear if any of the people sought by police were students or how they were connected to the university. A department spokesman said he could not provide any additional information about a suspect or the shooting.
A motive for the shooting remained unclear. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.
The incident was the second shooting on campus in just 12 hours. A shooting left one person injured outside the same dormitory around midnight Thursday, according to a statement issued by the school.
Students are not allowed to carry firearms on campus, Pickens said. A motive in the shooting was not immediately clear.
The shooting comes as a wave of gun violence on college campuses throughout the U.S. has reignited a debate over gun control and laws that block students from carrying firearms on campus.
Earlier on Friday, an argument at Northern Arizona University sparked a shooting that left one student dead and three injured. Last week, a gunman opened fire on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., killing nine and wounding nine others.
President Barack Obama, who made an impassioned plea for lawmakers to consider passing gun control legislation after the Oregon shooting, visited with the families of the victims of that attack on Friday.
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