Kennesaw State University confirmed Monday that a teenager shot to death in an apartment complex near campus was a student.
“It is with profound sadness that the University confirms the deceased victim, 18-year-old Oluwafemi Oyerinde, was an enrolled student at Kennesaw State University,” spokeswoman Tammy DeMel said. Officers responded to the Stadium Village complex at 11:40 a.m. Sunday and found Oyerinde dead, according to Officer Sydney Melton. He’d been shot in the back.
No arrest had been made in the case late Monday, and few details were released. Investigators do not believe the shooting was random.
“It was determined that there had been a dispute between neighbors prior to the shooting,” Melton said. KSU alerted students shortly after the shooting but said there was no threat to the campus.
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The apartment complex, popular with students, is not part of the KSU campus, although the university does list it on its website as an off-campus housing option. The complex offers four-bedroom apartments and townhouses, and monthly rent is between $629 and $729 per room, according to the Stadium Village website.
A woman answering phone calls at the complex referred calls to the corporate office, which was closed late Monday. Preferred Campus Management, which runs the complex and another one nearby, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Cage Gary said he and his roommate, Nicholas Blanchard, heard the shooting outside their apartment.
“I heard between 8 to 10 shots, rapid fire,” Gary told Channel 2 Action News.
His roommate heard a male voice screaming he was shot. Earlier in the weekend, the two had reported to apartment management some loud noises in the unit next to theirs.
“We did hear some arguments going on next door,” Blanchard told Channel 2. “It sounded like some fist-fighting, actual banging noises on the walls around us. We actually made a call to the clubhouse here at Stadium Village.”
Though no homicides have occurred on campus or in off-campus student housing in recent years, it’s the second time in 13 months that a gun has prompted heightened security. In September 2018, a student was arrested after allegedly carrying a loaded weapon on campus and saying he was known to “stack bodies,” though no one was injured.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Cobb County police at 770-499-3945.
