4 injured in shooting at Virginia State University, and 2 men taken into custody face gun charges

PETERSBURG, Va. — A shooting injured four people at Virginia State University early Wednesday, police said.

Two men taken into custody at the shooting scene were charged with brandishing firearms, but they have not been charged in the shooting, police announced Wednesday afternoon.

Officers responded to a report of a shooting that occurred in a large crowd at the university south of Richmond around 12:30 a.m. and found two men and two women who had been shot, Chesterfield County Police said in a news release. All four were taken to hospitals with injuries not considered life-threatening, police said.

The campus was placed on lockdown until it was deemed safe, the university said in a statement.

None of the victims is enrolled for the fall semester, according to university spokesperson Gwen Williams Dandridge. Classes start next week, but freshmen and student leaders are already on campus this week, she said.

The two 21-year-old men taken into custody were charged with brandishing a firearm, and one of them was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, police said. Neither is enrolled at VSU, and it wasn’t known if any of the victims knew either man, police said.

County and university police are investigating. No officers discharged firearms, police said.

The university enrolls about 4,000 students, according to its website.