Students experience shooting incident at off-campus event
By: TYLER STARKS
Apr 17, 2025
"I was participating, singing songs, and then the shooting happened. And we were running, people were falling, and I saw people jumping the fence and everything,” said Courtné Scott recalling her experience from Freaknik.
A tragedy struck Saturday, March 29, in Orangeburg County during a Freaknik party. An armed individual fired shots at the event with seven people being injured by gunshots.
Many college students attended the event. They recall what happened.
“I came with my homeboys, met a couple friends, you know having a good time,” JeMichael Hayes said.
His fun was interrupted when he heard gunshots and the atmosphere changed drastically. He was a witness who was close by when the shots were fired.
“You know, the experience of hearing those gunshots so close and having to try to get out with people rushing out and people trampling over each other and people getting hurt, it was an entire experience,” Hayes said.
Jaydon Wright, another student, was a witness from outside the event.
“I was never in the event, However, I did see a couple of things occurring before the fact. One was a fight breaking out between security and a person who was trying to get into the Freaknik event. But when the incident happened where the guy was shooting, I recall seeing everybody running out,” he said.
Wright said his female friends were injured while running away from the gunshots.
“One of my friends, she got trampled, and she was actually injured so bad, like her knees were bleeding, fingers were swollen. The other friend now has a cast on her arm.”
No one has been arrested in the incident.