World
US rocked by mass shootings during Easter weekend
US rocked by three mass shootings during Easter weekend; 2 dead
Washington DC: Two minors were killed while 31 others sustained injuries following mass shootings early on Sunday—the second in South Carolina and the third in the United States—during the Easter holiday weekend.
The two shootings come just a day after gunfire erupted at a busy mall in the South Carolina state capital of Columbia, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Sunday's nightclub shooting.
Nine people were shot, and five people sustained other kinds of injuries while trying to flee the scene.
In Pittsburgh, two male youths were killed and at least eight people wounded when shots were fired during a party at a short-term rental property.
The city’s Police Chief Scott Schubert stated that “vast majority” of the hundreds of people at the party were underage.
Investigators believe there were multiple shooters, and Mr Schubert said police were processing evidence at as many as eight separate crime scenes spanning a few blocks around the rental home.
The victims ranged in age from 15 to 73. None faced life-threatening injuries.
Officials believe that the victims and suspects knew each other and something led to the gunfire.
The only person arrested in the mall shooting so far is identified as Jewayne Price (22)—one of three people initially detained by law enforcement as a person of interest.
As per Price’s attorney, he fired a gun at the mall in self-defence.
Price, however, faces a charge of unlawfully carrying a pistol because he legally owned his gun but did not have a permit to carry a weapon.
The three Easter weekend mass shootings are in addition to other gun violence in recent days.
Last week, an armed man opened fire in a New York subway car, wounding 10 people. A suspect was arrested the next day.
Earlier in April, six people were killed and 12 others wounded in Sacramento, California, during a gunfight between rival gangs as bars closed in a busy downtown area just blocks from the state Capitol.