At least six people, including a Pennsylvania State Police Officer were killed and Dozens injured in a series of weekend violence and mass shootings across the United States
The shootings in suburban Chicago, Washington state, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, southern California and Baltimore come as a result of a spike in homicides and other violence in recent years, which experts say has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.
“There is no doubt that there has been an uptick in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases appear to be just disputes, often among young people, and these disputes are fought with guns, not fists.”
Researchers disagree on the cause of the increase. Theories include the possibility that violence is being caused by the proliferation of guns in America or by less aggressive police tactics or a decline in gun-related prosecutions, Nagin said.
As of Sunday evening, none of the weekend events met the definition of a mass murder, because fewer than four people died at each location. However, in most cases the number of casualties fits the widely accepted definition of mass shootings.
Here’s a look at the shooting this weekend:
Authorities said at least 23 people were shot, one fatally, early Sunday in a suburban Chicago parking lot where hundreds of people had gathered to celebrate June 19.
The DuPage County Sheriff’s Office described a “peaceful gathering” that suddenly erupted into violence when several people fired multiple shots into the crowd in Willowbrook, Illinois, about 20 miles southwest of Chicago.
A motive for the attack was not immediately known. Sheriff’s spokesman Robert Carroll said authorities interviewed “persons of interest” in the shooting Daily Herald reported.
A witness, Markeshia Avery, said the celebration commemorated June 19, the federal holiday Monday, commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been set free — two years after the declaration of emancipation.
“We just started hearing gunshots, so we lay down until they stopped,” Avery said said WLS TV.
Two people were killed and two others injured when a shootout began fire “randomly”. In a crowd at a Washington state campground where people were staying to attend a nearby music festival on Saturday night, police said.
The suspect was shot dead during an altercation with police officers and taken into custody several hundred yards from the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival.
A public alert alerted people to an active gunman in the area and advised them to “flee, hide or fight”.
The festival lasted until early Sunday morning, said Kyle Foreman, spokesman for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office. Organizers then tweeted that Sunday’s concert was canceled.
Just hours apart, a state police officer was killed and a second seriously injured in central Pennsylvania on Saturday after a gunman attacked a state police barracks.
The suspect pulled his truck into the Lewistown barracks parking lot around 11 a.m. Saturday and opened fire with a large-caliber rifle at marked squad cars before fleeing, authorities said Sunday.
Lieutenant James Wagner, 45, was shot and critically injured after striking the suspect several miles away in Mifflintown. Police officer Jacques Rougeau Jr., 29, was later ambushed and shot through the windshield of his squad car while driving down a street in nearby Walker Township, authorities said.
The suspect was shot dead after a violent shootout, said Lt. Col. George Bivens, who boarded a helicopter to coordinate the search for the 38-year-old suspect.
“What I saw…was one of the most intense and incredible gunfights I’ve ever seen,” Bivens said, praising the soldiers for launching an aggressive search despite facing a weapon that “destroys every body armor would.” that were available to them.”
A motive was initially unknown.
An early Sunday gunfight in one Downtown St Louis A 17-year-old was killed and nine other teenagers injured in an office building, the city’s police commissioner said.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Commissioner Robert Tracy identified the victim killed as 17-year-old Makao Moore. A spokesman said a minor who possessed a pistol is in police custody as a suspect.
Teenagers were having a party in an office when the shooting broke out around 1am on Sunday.
The victims were between 15 and 19 years old and had injuries, including multiple gunshot wounds. A 17-year-old girl was trampled while trying to escape and seriously injured her spine, Tracy said.
Bullet casings from AR rifles and other firearms littered the floor.
A shootout at a pool party rolled into one Southern California Eight people were injured in their home, authorities said on Saturday.
KABC TV reported Authorities were dispatched just after midnight in Carson, California, south of Los Angeles.
The victims were between the ages of 16 and 24, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. They were taken to hospitals and two were in critical condition, the statement said.
Authorities said they found another 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound when responding to a call about a vehicle crashing into a wall nearby.
Six people were injured on a Friday night Filming in Baltimore. All were expected to survive.
Just before 9 p.m., officers heard gunshots north of the city and found three men with multiple gunshot wounds. Doctors took her to nearby hospitals for treatment.
Police later learned of three other victims who were taken to nearby hospitals with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
The wounded were between the ages of 17 and 26, said Lindsey Eldridge, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Police Department.
