A shooting at a party in Pittsburgh left two 17-year olds dead and several others injured. In Portland, Oregon, a shooting left one person dead and three minors injured.
By Chantal Da Silva
(Source News):
At least four major shootings broke out across the United States over the Easter weekend, including one at a party in Pittsburgh that left two teenagers dead and several others injured early Sunday.
The violence comes after President Joe Biden announced tougher gun regulations last week in the wake of multiple mass shootings.
Pittsburgh police said in a statement Sunday that officers were called to the reports of a shooting just after 12:30 a.m. at an Airbnb rental property. When they arrived, additional shots were heard in the immediate area and “several young people” were seen fleeing the area on foot and in vehicles.
Mass shooting at Pittsburgh party leaves two dead
Police said that at least 10 people were injured in the incident. Two of them, Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross, both 17, were pronounced dead at a hospital, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to NBC News. Other gunshot victims were taken to hospitals by first responders or arrived at hospitals in and outside the city on their own.
Police said that as many as 200 people, many underage, were at a party in a short-term rental property when as many as 50 rounds went off. The shots were believed to have been fired from inside the property, prompting some partygoers to jump out of windows, sustaining injuries including broken bones and lacerations. Police have asked for anyone with information on the shooting to come forward.
1 dead, 3 minors injured in Portland shooting
A shooting in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, left one person dead and three minors injured, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
The bureau said in a statement that police had been called to reports of a shooting just after 8:40 p.m. local time (11:40 p.m. ET) Sunday night. When they arrived, they found one man dead and three boys with gunshot wounds.
The three boys were transported to area hospitals, with one sustaining life-threatening injuries, police said. His status was not clear as of early Monday morning.
Violence in South Carolina
In South Carolina, gunfire broke out at a nightclub in Hampton County on Sunday, a day after gunfire erupted at a mall in the state’s capital, Columbia, around 90 miles north. At least nine people were injured in the shooting at Cara’s Lounge in Hampton County, South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division told The Associated Press.
It came after at least nine people sustained gunshot wounds in the shooting at the Columbiana Centre in the capital Saturday, with victims’ ages ranging from 15 to 73, according to the Columbia Police Department.
At least five others sustained separate injuries, including broken bones, lacerations and a head injury while trying to flee the mall, police said. None of the victims appeared to have been critically injured.
The lawyer for a man who was arrested following the shooting said Sunday that his client had opened fire in self-defense in a confrontation with other shooters. The man, identified as Jewayne Price, 22, has since been released under house arrest and has been ordered to wear an ankle monitor after a judge set a $25,000 surety bond.
Man arrested after South Carolina mall shooting fired in self-defense, his lawyer says
Police had arrested Price on suspicion of unlawful possession of a pistol after initially taking him in for questioning, the Columbia Police Department said. While police have not formally identified him as a shooter in the incident, on Sunday, Price was barred by Bond Court at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center from contacting victims of the attack.
Two other men who were also detained for questioning were released from police custody Saturday after it was determined that they were not involved in the shooting, police said. However, they said witness accounts and surveillance video suggested that at least three suspects had displayed firearms inside the mall.
They said the shooting appeared to be an isolated incident involving the suspects and had “likely stemmed from an ongoing conflict.” Police are still working to determine exactly how many suspects were involved.
