*On this date in 2007, two students were shot and wounded at Delaware State University. The students were shot near the Memorial Hall gymnasium around 1 a.m. a female student suffered serious wounds; a male student's wounds were not as serious, and he was hospitalized in stable condition. The campus was locked down as police searched for a gunman.
Three days later, on September 24th, police arrested an 18-year-old man in the shooting. As they led him into a courthouse, he told reporters: “I’m sorry.” Loyer D. Braden, arrested about 3 a.m. in his dorm room, was charged with attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment, as well as a gun charge, according to court documents.
Bail for the East Orange, N.J., teenager at $75,000, ordered him to stay away from the victims and Delaware State. Braden was a freshman at Delaware State, according to a man at Braden’s home in East Orange who identified himself only as a family member. University officials, who had assured the campus community that the gunman was not on campus, could not explain how or when Braden returned to his dorm room.
At the start of the fall semester, the campus community held a memorial service for three students, and an incoming student shot execution-style on Aug. 4 as they hung out at an elementary school in their hometown of Newark, N.J. Delaware State was established in 1891 as the State College for Colored Students. It had about 3,690 students last year. The 400-acre campus is in the northern section of Dover.
