BALTIMORE (AP) — Two groups of people got into a fight Tuesday outside a dining hall on the Morgan State University campus, and three football players were stabbed by someone swinging a knife wildly, police and college officials said.
It was the third instance of violence on the Baltimore campus in less than a week.
The players were taken to hospitals and their injuries were not considered to be life-threatening, police said.
University spokesman Clint Coleman said one of the players was slashed across the chest and another was cut on the arm. He said a third person was cut on the cheek; police said a third person was stabbed in the back. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
A suspect was taken into custody. It’s not clear what started the fight.
This is the third instance of recent violence. On Friday, a male student was stabbed with scissors by his roommate after an argument over the cleanliness of their dorm room.
Early Saturday, an on-campus party was broken up after fights started.
School officials held a campus meeting Tuesday night to talk about what happened.
“We expect you as students to take responsibility for your own behavior and actions,” University president David Wilson told those in attendance.
Earlier Tuesday, Wilson sent an email to students that declared “This is not Morgan!”
Kevin Banks, vice president for student affairs, repeated that assertion.
“The stuff you’ve seen on TV the past few days is not Morgan State University,” Banks said.
Wilson also said no text alerts were sent to students immediately after the stabbing because “the general public was not in imminent danger because this was a fight between known parties and not a random act of violence.”
But Freshman Shakia Marine, 20, who did not attend the campus meeting, said she is a little worried about the latest spate of violence.
“My godfather has concerns about me coming here,” Marine said. “There needs to be more security guards walking around. After today, it made me feel scared. My roommate said we should get some Mace to protect ourselves. I think the school needs to take more action. It’s not the first time something like this has happened.”
Morgan State is the largest historically black university in Maryland and has about 6,000 students, according to its website.
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