CAMERON - Possibly two men were shooting early Sunday when at least a dozen bullets were fired into a crowd gathered at Eighth Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, wounding three men and striking a house, Cameron Police Chief Patrick Guffey said.

“At the moment, it just looks like somebody started throwing some rounds into the crowd just to do it,” Guffey said. “At this time, it doesn’t look like anyone in particular or any item in particular was singled out. Somebody just opened up.”

Police have not determined the type of weapon used, and are following leads to identify at least two men witnesses said were shooting, Guffey said. The shooting occurred on a side street, where cars were parked. Those shooting were in the street and fired into the parking lot and house.

“We are not totally positive, if it were one or two shooting, and everything we are hearing they may not be Cameron residents,” Guffey said.

Gunfire erupted suddenly at 1:30 a.m. Sunday at a street gathering of some 2,000 people. The crowd ducked and rushed for cover, as 12 police officers headed against the throng. Officer Sheila Sager suffered a sprained right hand as she attempted to make her way into the crowd.

Bullets struck Henry Johnson, 21, of Killeen, who was in stable condition Monday at Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple after he was wounded in the right thigh. His father James Johnson, 46, of Cameron, suffered a wound in the arm and was in stable condition at Scott and White. Enrique Luna, 22, of Cameron, was treated and released from Central Texas Hospital in Cameron after suffering a gunshot wound to his left foot. Police believe a bullet ricochet injured Luna.

Police Detective Kris Stringer said the entire police force was working security for the gathering, estimated at between 1,000 and 2,000 people, in an area of Eighth Street and MLK, where the streets had been blocked off to accommodate informal visiting by people who traditionally come to Cameron the second weekend in August for a series of events sponsored by the O.J. Thomas Ex-Students’ Alumni Association Inc.

“We could see the muzzle flare,” Stringer said. “We all went running toward the shooting, and there were 1,000-plus people running against us.”

O.J. Thomas was an educator who pursued programs that encouraged blacks to get a good education in public school, and advance to college and successful careers. The school graduated its last senior class in 1968, when the black school integrated with Cameron schools. The Ex-Students’ Alumni Association organized in 1977, and has conducted homecomings the second weekend in August each year with programs, scholarship awards, special recognitions, memorial services, a parade, homecoming royalty and a dance at the Cameron VFW Hall.

Hattie Steward of Temple, alumni association business manager, denounced the informal gatherings for using the O.J. Thomas organization “to blacken our name” by having unchaperoned, disorganized assemblies on the streets adjoining O.J. Thomas School and O.J. Thomas Park, that erupted into violence, drugs, brawls, assaults and shootings. These activities interfere with sanctioned activities at O.J. Thomas School.

The alumni association will continue to ask the Cameron City Council to stop the informal street gatherings she said were faultily conducted in the name of the O.J. Thomas Alumni Association, which does not condone those activities.

“We have been conducting these activities for years, and there is no way anyone of us at our age is going to be out there on that street,” Mrs. Steward said. “It has nothing to do with us. We warned the city last year ... something bad is going to happen, but all they can see is O.J. Thomas, and these people are doing it on their own.”

The alumni association is planning a meeting with city officials to discuss future action, she said.

Lawrence Williams wanted to have a basketball tournament in the neighborhood, and petitioned the Cameron City Council to block off streets, provide portable restrooms and trashcans for the throngs of people who want to celebrate and visit long after official events end for the night on Saturday. The basketball tournament hit a snag and was canceled.

“If O.J. Thomas Alumni Association did not have the homecoming, the crowd would not be there,” Williams said. “They have to take some responsibility.”

“We’ve had shootings in the past, but nobody was shot until this year,” Stringer said. Overnight Saturday police investigated three beer bottle assaults to the head incidents broke up numerous fights, drug possession cases and an incident reported to Stringer as he directed traffic. An 18-year-old woman reported to him that she had been driven to a rural area of the county and sexually assaulted by a man who gave her a ride on his motorcycle. The Milam County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident.