CNN –
Three people were killed and eight others were wounded in a shooting in Mississippi during a party celebrating a school’s football victory early Saturday, according to the local sheriff.
The Associated Press reported that two 19-year-olds and a 25-year-old were killed in the incident in which at least two shooters participated. She added that the injured were airlifted to the hospital.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie Marsh confirmed to CNN that the shooting occurred on a road outside Lexington early Saturday morning. Emergency services received a call at about 12:30 a.m. ET and arrived in less than 15 minutes, Marsh said.
They were greeted by a chaotic scene, he said. “Chaos. People running, people crying, people, you know, it was chaos because of the large number of people who were there.”
There have been at least 422 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one that results in four or more people being injured or killed, not including the shooter. Fire.
The Associated Press reported that between 200 and 300 people attended the ceremony, which followed a football game in Holmes County Unified School District’s homecoming celebration.
“The match ended after three or four hours and people decided to go out there on a trip and I think they were going to have a party because they won,” he said. “The school had nothing to do with it at all. They didn’t wear it, they didn’t participate in it – anything.
Marsh said that, to his knowledge, the football players themselves were not present and that the reason for the shooting was unclear.
“We’re asking questions, but everyone says they didn’t see any accident or fight or anything,” Marsh said. “We try to find the motivation ourselves.”
Joe Johnson, co-owner of the land where the ceremony was held, told CNN affiliate WAPT that the event was scheduled to end shortly after filming began.
“We had 30 minutes left, and I was about to comment, ‘You know, it won’t be long,’ and then I heard the shots go off,” he told WAPT.
Johnson said the shots were repeated and sounded like a machine gun.
He added that the events held in the square were under security guard, which previously led to the confiscation of weapons, but they succeeded this time.
“You have a lot of innocent blood being shed, and that’s what hurts me,” he said. “I’m an ordained minister and I just wish I could talk to our young people and tell them to, you know, love each other.”
Johnson said that his nephew was among those injured and that his sons were also present: “It was God’s kindness that they did not shoot them.”
This incident marks the second weekend in a row of mass shootings after Homecoming celebrations.
One man was killed and nine others were wounded in a shooting near Tennessee State University in Nashville on October 12 after that school celebrated the homecoming of its graduates, although police said it was a “kind of” celebration and not a reflection of the university.