BALTIMORE — Five people were shot at Morgan State University in Baltimore Tuesday night and police have yet to locate a suspect, officials said as the investigation continues into the shooting that sent students running and sheltering in place.

Four of the victims are Morgan University students, according to Morgan State University Police Chief Lance Hatcher. The victims, four men and one woman aged 18 to 22, were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said in a media briefing.

The chaos unfolded as a popular homecoming week event was letting out Tuesday night at the university – an HBCU in northeast Baltimore.

The violent disruption of what was supposed to be a celebratory night marks one of at least 531 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The gunfire forced orders for students and teachers to shelter in place for hours as a SWAT team combed through a student dorm building.

Hours later, police said they didn’t find a suspect and that they no longer believed it was an active shooter situation.

“We did not locate the suspect at this time,” Worley said at the briefing. No suspect description was provided by police as of early Wednesday morning and it’s unclear how many shooters were involved in the incident.

“We didn’t open the campus up until our SWAT team had cleared the building where we thought the suspect may have ran or where we thought the shot came from,” Worley said. “They cleared every single floor twice.”

The police commissioner said the shooting happened outside the building, but did not provide further details. Footage from CNN affiliate WJZ showed a student dorm with a shattered upper-floor window.

“The scene remains active and we are working alongside our many federal law enforcement partners to piece together everything that exactly happened,” Worley said, noting all the details are “preliminary.”

The Baltimore office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced it is assisting local police with searching for shell casings and additional evidence.

As the incident unfolded earlier Tuesday, police had warned the campus community to stay clear of the area surrounding Thurgood Marshall Hall and the Murphy Fine Arts Center.

The Murphy Fine Arts auditorium was almost filled to capacity Tuesday evening for the crowning of Mr. and Miss Morgan State University – an event that draws families from all over the country, said Morgan State University President David Wilson.

“Our students at the end of that were headed over to the Student Center to rejoice and to enjoy themselves when this unfortunate situation erupted on the campus,” Wilson said.

One student described hearing gunshots as the on-campus event was letting out Tuesday night.

“We were outside of our coronation, basically they let out and everybody was leaving, and then we see two gunshots hit the front window and everyone just started running. It was chaos,” the student who lives on campus, identified only as David, told CNN affiliate WBAL.

David said he initially thought it was fireworks.

“Then real fear set in and then I realized ... this could be an active shooter,” David told the station. “I didn’t know what was going on I just started fearing for my life like everybody else did.”

Another student, Jason, described initially having a hard time getting through to his family on the phone during the chaos.

“You wanna come to university and feel safe ... but things happen and it’s unfortunate that this has to happen with students,” he told WBAL.

Morgan State had about 9,000 students enrolled in Fall 2022. The shooting occurred just days before a scheduled candlelight memorial service intended to honor university members who have died over the past year.

The university president announced that classes will be canceled Wednesday and counselors will be available to students. “We will be assessing what will happen for the rest of the homecoming week as early as tomorrow morning,” he added. — CNN