Gunfire erupted Saturday night on a street behind Bragg Memorial Stadium at Florida A&M University, just hours after the school's homecoming football game, leaving 12 people injured. Six of the wounded were children, among them an 11-year-old, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said.

The shooting happened shortly before 8 p.m. as crowds lingered in the area following the game. Investigators say a physical altercation between acquaintances preceded the gunfire, and that none of the people struck by bullets appear to have been the intended targets.

"What should have been a weekend of celebration in our community instead became a night of fear and violence," Revell said Monday as he announced the arrest of a 15-year-old, identified as Anthony Rivers III. The teenager faces 11 counts of attempted second-degree murder along with weapons possession charges. Police called the arrest "a significant step forward," crediting public tips and a review of digital evidence for helping detectives identify the teenager.

No deaths have been reported. By Sunday morning, five of the injured had been released from the hospital, while six remained under treatment, one in critical condition, according to police.

The shooting drew swift attention beyond Tallahassee, in part because of its scale and its proximity to a marquee event on the university's calendar. Florida A&M, a historically Black university, draws large alumni and family crowds for its homecoming weekend, and the violence occurred as many were still in the vicinity of the stadium celebrating or heading home.

The incident adds to a year in which mass shootings — defined by the Gun Violence Archive as incidents in which four or more people are shot, not counting the shooter — have numbered in the hundreds nationwide. Tallahassee police have not released details on a motive beyond describing the initial altercation, and they have not said what relationship, if any, existed between the suspect and those who were shot.

The university, located a short distance from where the gunfire occurred, had been hosting a full slate of homecoming activities over the weekend, drawing current students along with returning alumni.

The case remains under investigation, and police said more charges or arrests could follow as detectives continue reviewing evidence from the scene.

References

1. 1.CBS News/AP — confirmed 12 injured including six children, arrest of 15-year-old, and timing tied to FAMU homecoming weekend
2. 2.NBC News — quote from Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell describing the weekend as turning from celebration to fear and violence
3. 3.Fox 13 News — confirmed suspect's name, Anthony Rivers III, and the 11 counts of attempted second-degree murder plus weapons possession charges
4. 4.CNN — reported altercation between acquaintances preceding the shooting, hospital status of victims as of Sunday morning, and national mass shooting context from the Gun Violence Archive
5. 5.WFLA — confirmed shooting location behind the stadium and timing just before 8 p.m. Saturday
6. 6.Gun Violence Archive (gunviolencearchive.org) — its published methodology defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter, and its 2026 summary ledger shows 386 such incidents recorded nationwide as of late October 2026, supporting the 'hundreds' figure.