Catherine Torney will not be able to sue Towson University, more than four years after she was shot at an unsanctioned party on campus.

The Maryland Supreme Court stated Tuesday in a one-page order that a supermajority of the justices decided that they should not have taken up her appeal. The ruling comes less than two weeks after the state’s highest court heard oral argument in the case.

Neither Torney’s attorney nor Towson University officials immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday morning.

A crowd that grew to about 400 people gathered on Sept. 3, 2021, in the university’s Freedom Square, where a DJ played music and partiers, some underage, smoked cannabis and drank alcohol, according to court documents.

Towson University Police officers decided not to shut down the party, court records say. Then a gunman opened fire, wounding Torney and two others.

Torney, a student at the time, sued the university in 2023 in Baltimore County Circuit Court, where a judge later threw out her lawsuit. She appealed, and the Appellate Court of Maryland upheld the decision.

Torney alleged that the risk of gun violence was foreseeable. But the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, which defended the university, noted that Torney was “shot by an unknown assailant at a boisterous, unsanctioned social gathering.” Until then, there had been no violence at the event or a report of an armed person before the shooting, according to court documents.

The Maryland Office of the Attorney General declined to comment.

The decision comes less than a week after another on-campus shooting at the public university. An attempted robbery in the stairwell of a Towson dormitory last week ended with the assailant accidentally shooting himself in the leg and prompted a brief lockdown.

Gage Flood, 19, remains held without bond and is facing nine charges, including armed robbery, first-degree assault and other firearm-related offenses. Neither Flood nor the victims were students or employees at the university.

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