URBANA — At first the noise sounded like a burst of fireworks. Five pops, maybe more.

Then came the sounds of "intense screaming," and Colter Carlisle looked outside.

"There were girls in dresses hopping nine-foot fences and people sprinting, going crazy," said Carlisle, a UI senior. "That's when I realized people had gotten shot."

Carlisle and his roommates live around the corner from a house at 1004 S. Lincoln Ave., U, where one UI student and two alumni were shot during an after-hours party early Sunday. The private house is rented by students from the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, which is a member of the UI's Black Greek Council but does not have a certified house, officials said.

Brian Reed, a 2010 University of Illinois graduate from the Chicago area, was critically injured in the shooting, The News-Gazette has learned. Also injured were UI senior Trulon Henry, starting linebacker for the UI football team, and an unidentified UI alumnus, officials said.

All three shooting victims were taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, and one was treated and released, according to Urbana Police Lt. Bryant Seraphin. Henry was expected to have surgery on his hand Sunday and will miss the rest of the season, officials said. He remained hospitalized Monday evening but was expected to be released today, according to head Coach Ron Zook.

Hospital officials would release no information about Reed.

Seraphin said on Monday afternoon that police had made no arrests and were still looking for a silver Dodge Charger with black racing stripes reportedly used by the shooter before police arrived. Authorities are looking for a black man, less than 30 years old, with dreadlocks and wearing a dark-colored coat.

Urbana police were called at 3:26 a.m. to the Lincoln Avenue fraternity house, where an argument had broken out at a large house party, Seraphin said.

Seraphin said that more than 100 people had been at the party, where he said alcohol had been consumed.

"There was some sort of disagreement and there had been a fight at the party prior to the shootings," Seraphin said.

Seraphin said an unknown person fired a handgun several times into a crowded patio area on the south side of the home after a physical fight that police said prompted the shooting. By the time police arrived, the shooter had fled.

"We only have information that there was one shooter," Seraphin said.

"It was dark. When we arrived, we discovered three men injured there. All sorts of people were running and climbing out over the fence and taking off in all directions."

Seraphin said no information is being released on whether Illinois football players may have been involved in the fight. But on Monday evening,  Kent Brown, UI sports information director, said no Illinois players were involved in the fighting.

During the incident, a player called Henry to have him help get other football players away from the scene, according to Brown.

On Monday, no one answered the door at the house. The front door's windows were covered with newspaper and a student notebook. A hot tub and an old couch were visible through the fence on the patio where the shooting took place.

Around the corner, Carlisle said he was awake when he heard the shots early Sunday. His girlfriend, Lea Cohen of Berkeley, Calif., counted five to seven shots, "all at once. I've never heard gunfire before," she said.

"They just kept shooting," added UI senior Sean Owens.

Brad Surmin, a UI sophomore, was awakened by the noise, but "I saw the chaos afterward," he said. "It sounded like 100 people screaming."

Surmin and Owens said it wasn't uncommon for the house to have loud parties.