Mass shooting at Miss Homecoming leaves 3 dead and 8 wounded: Sharif

Mass shooting at Miss Homecoming leaves 3 dead and 8 wounded: Sharif

A homecoming celebration turned deadly in Lexington, Miss., when two men opened fire on a crowd of people, wounding eight people and killing three.

Two 19-year-olds and a 25-year-old were killed when a hail of bullets tore through a crowd of hundreds gathered after a Holmes County Unified School District football game earlier Friday evening.

Holmes County Unified Schools is located near Lexington, Mississippi, which is 60 miles north of the capital, Jackson. AP

Eight injured victims were taken to area hospitals, including some who were airlifted to the capital, Jackson, 60 miles south of the shooting site, according to the Associated Press.

At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, an argument broke out and at least two young men opened fire on the crowd of up to 300 youth, Holmes County Sheriff Willie Marsh told the outlet.

“The football team won the homecoming game, and people wanted to go and celebrate the win, but others didn’t have the same intention,” Holmes County Sheriff Willie Marsh told the Clarion Ledger.

“It was chaos, to tell you the truth. The shooting just started and people started running,” Marsh told the outlet, adding that between 200 and 300 people gathered on the outside track to celebrate.

The school was not involved in organizing the Sheriff’s March stated by the Clarion Ledger.

A co-owner of Indian Creek Trail, whose nephew was among those injured, told WAPT he rented it for a party — which was scheduled to end just before the shooting occurred.

“We had 30 minutes, 30 minutes to go, and I was about to comment, ‘It won’t be long,’ and that’s when I heard the gunshots,” Joe Johnson said.

Indian Creek Trail where young people gathered to celebrate homecoming on Friday evening. And I decided

Events held on Indian Creek Trail are usually guarded by security, and weapons have been confiscated in the past, but they succeeded this time, Johnson said. He told WAPT the shots sounded like a machine gun.

Investigators believe the shooter or shooters used a handgun equipped with a “switch,” which converts a semi-automatic handgun into a selective-fire pistol, the Clarion Ledger reported.

“A lot of innocent blood has been shed, and that’s what hurts me,” Johnson lamented.

“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.”

“It was God’s kindness that they weren’t shot,” Johnson said of his injured nephew and his son, who was also present.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *