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Multiple mass shootings over Halloween weekend leave 11 dead and scores injured

Tampa police officers stand in the street in the Ybor City section of Tampa, Fla., after a shooting early Sunday. A fight between two people turned deadly in a shooting during Halloween festivities.
Chris O'Meara
/
AP
Tampa police officers stand in the street in the Ybor City section of Tampa, Fla., after a shooting early Sunday. A fight between two people turned deadly in a shooting during Halloween festivities.

The weekend before Halloween saw a spate of deadly mass shootings in several U.S. cities that left at least 11 people dead and 76 others injured, according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

Between Friday and Sunday, 12 mass shootings took place, the GVA reported as of Sunday evening. The GVA defines mass shootings as when at least four people are injured or killed, excluding the shooter.

Many of the shootings took place at large gatherings in the early hours of Sunday.

This weekend's mass shootings come as the country mourns the victims of its deadliest mass shooting this year. Days earlier, 18 people were killed in a shooting in Lewiston, Maine.

Here's what we know from the investigations into shootings in Texas, Indiana, Florida, Illinois and Georgia. The GVA also listed mass shootings happening in Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, Louisiana and Ohio.

Texarkana, Texas

In Texarkana, Texas, three people were killed and three others were injured in a shooting at a party in the back room of a business a little after 9 p.m. on Saturday, police said. Police are searching for 20-year-old Breoskii Warren, whom they've identified as a suspect in the shootings.

"Apparently, this all started when a fist fight broke out between two men at the party. At some point during this fight, at least two men there pulled out rifles and started shooting," read a statement from the Texarkana Texas Police Department posted to social media on Sunday morning.

The victims range in age from 19 to 31 years old. One man died at the scene, and a woman and another man died overnight at the hospital. The three other victims, two men and a woman, were at the hospital recovering from what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.

Indianapolis

In northeast Indianapolis, 10 people between 16 and 22 years old were injured, one of them fatally, at what police said was a shooting at a large party. Around midnight on Sunday, police officers responded to reports of a large gathering at the 5100 block of East 65th Street.

Officers said they heard gunshots and saw a large crowd dispersing from the area, according to a statement issued by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on Sunday morning. Multiple firearms were found at the scene.

The nine surviving victims are in stable condition.

No arrest has been made, but several people were detained, police said, adding that there was no known active threat to the public.

Tampa, Fla.

Two people died — a 14-year-old and a 20-year-old — and 16 others were injured in a shooting around 3 a.m. on Sunday in the Ybor City neighborhood of downtown Tampa.

The shooting was the result of an isolated dispute between two people that escalated into violence, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said during a Sunday afternoon news conference.

Fifteen of the injured victims were shot. The other victim was seriously injured but police did not give further details. Five of the surviving victims remained in the hospital, but their injuries are not life threatening, according to Bercaw.

One suspect has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder with a firearm. Two handguns were recovered from two different people by police; one of them was identified as stolen, the other was not.

Chicago

Police said at least 15 people were injured — two of them critically — in a shooting in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago's West Side early Sunday morning.

Chicago Police officers responding to the scene saw a man open fire at the site of a gathering just after 1 a.m., according to a news release from the department.

The suspect armed with a handgun was taken into custody a short distance away after initially fleeing on foot.

Six women and nine men were shot, all ranging in age from 26 to 53, police said.

Attendees told local TV news station ABC7 that they had been there to celebrate Halloween.

Atlanta

A large crowd was gathered near the Georgia State University campus around when gunfire began at about 5 a.m. on Sunday. Police said four people, three female and one male, were shot.

Three of the victims transported themselves to the hospital with non-life-threatening wounds before police arrived. The other gunshot victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Police have not said whether a suspect has been taken into custody.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Emma Bowman
[Copyright 2024 NPR]