CONWAY, S.C. — Officials at Coastal Carolina University confirmed early Wednesday that one student was killed in a shooting near the campus Tuesday evening.

CCU spokeswoman Martha Hunn said in an emailed press release that Anthony Darnell Liddell, 19, a sophomore from Bennettsville, died Tuesday as a result of a shooting incident at University Place residence hall.

The release said that CCU Department of Public Safety Police Chief David Roper has determined that currently there is no apparent threat to students, faculty or staff, but residence halls were to remain on lockdown through the night.

Classes will be held Wednesday as scheduled.

University Place was eerily silent late Tuesday as police continued their search for a shooter who forced a campus lockdown.

Hunn said the shooting happened at University Place at 7:22 p.m. Tuesday night. An alert was issued via email and text messages that a shooter was on campus and students were to remain where they were.

By 10 p.m. Tuesday, the lockdown was still in place and law enforcement continued their search for the shooter.

Hunn said Liddell had been taken to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center.

University Place resident Kaitlin Eriksen was inside her balcony when she heard four or five shots in quick succession. She went on her balcony to see where the shots came from and saw the victim, a man, fall against the back of his car’s rear window.

“He took about two steps back and then collapsed. He just fell out there,” Eriksen said.

CCU freshman Katrina Shuleski lives in University Place and was home at the time of the shooting. She didn’t hear anything, but did go outside and saw a crowd of dozens standing around.

“I just saw somebody laying on the ground,” she said.

Luke Smith, another freshman, also lives at University Place. He was tutoring on campus when he got a text about the shooting. He said he went to a campus grille to get some food after the lockdown was put in place.

Both students were walking through University Place’s parking lot around 9:30 p.m., with fellow freshman Katelyn Smith, who is Luke Smith’s cousin.

Katelyn Smith lives at a nearby apartment complex and immediately called both Luke Smith and Shuleski when she got a text alert about the shooting.

Despite the scary nature of what happened, all three said they still believe CCU is a fairly safe campus.

Student Dan Murphy, who lives at the nearby Sandhill Sea apartment complex, went to a gas station on his bicycle after getting the news. He was still riding it around 9:30 p.m.

“I’m not that afraid,” Murphy said. “Should I be?”

It was scary for freshman James Paigo, who was exercising at a campus gym when he heard about the shooting. It was even more frightening running from the gym and knowing a shooter was somewhere nearby.

“The veil of secrecy definitely goes away,” Paigo said, referring to a sense of security on campus where more than 9,000 students are enrolled.

Shootings on or near school campuses have received heightened attention following the December shooting in a Newtown, Conn. elementary school and it didn’t take long for word of the lockdown and search at CCU to move across cyberspace. News organizations across the state were carrying the story and by 9:51 p.m., even the Huffington Post had tweeted about the lockdown and search for a suspect.