Dozens of people were injured and at least six were killed in mass shootings as gun violence erupted in nightlife districts in half a dozen U.S. cities over Halloween weekend .
Dallas police, the scene of the deadliest violence, reported that four people were killed and 15 wounded in multiple shootings in the city’s Deep Ellum neighborhood , a hub for music, restaurants, and nightlife.
Police in college towns such as Fayetteville, Arkansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Newark, Delaware; and Bloomington, Illinois, also reported shootings in their nightlife districts over the weekend.
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said investigators are still trying to determine if the shootings last night, which occurred over a period of about an hour and 15 minutes, were related.
Comeaux explained that there were three separate shootings and that their causes are still unknown.
He added that some arrests were made, but did not specify how many or what charges were filed.
“It’s a very complex situation. It has spread across several areas,” Comeaux stated. “We are interviewing some of the people we have arrested and are still trying to determine their connection to the other shootings in the area.”
The department had increased police presence in the district before the shootings. No officers were injured.
In Birmingham, Alabama, one person was killed and eight others were injured last night in a mass shooting just outside Legion Field after the annual Magic City Classic football game, police said.
Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett said most spectators and families had already left the stadium after the game, but the shooting occurred nearby, where vendors had set up along Graymont Avenue.
He said he was “very grateful that no more people were injured.”
- The circumstances of the shooting were unclear.
Police spokesman De’Rell Freeman said one person had been arrested and taken to police headquarters for questioning, and that “multiple weapons” had been found and seized.
Alabama State University and Alabama A&M are historically Black universities and archrivals whose annual matchup has been played for more than 100 years.
Nearly 70,000 fans attended yesterday’s game, which Alabama A&M won 31-28. The event draws some of the largest crowds in the country for games played in its college football division.
The Magic City Classic has such a long history that Alabama State coach Eddie Robinson Jr., a former NFL linebacker and alumnus of the school, proposed creating a Hall of Fame for the game.
In Newark, Delaware, six people were shot last night near the University of Delaware campus, Newark Police Lt. Greg D’Elia said.
All six were taken to hospitals for treatment, police said early this morning.
As of this afternoon, there were no updates on his condition. A university spokesperson said they would provide updates on the investigation online as they became available.
A video shared on social media showed people fleeing the scene for safety. A section of the city’s main street remained closed for several hours following the shooting, police said.
A shooting early this morning in Bloomington, Illinois, claimed the life of a 19-year-old woman and left another in critical condition.
Six other people suffered minor injuries, but a joint statement from the Bloomington Police Department and the McLean County Medical Examiner’s Office did not clarify whether all six sustained gunshot wounds.
The shooting occurred near the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. Bloomington is located about 135 miles (217 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.
A shooting early this morning near a shopping center southwest of Little Rock, Arkansas, left one man dead and “several others” injured, the city’s police department reported on Facebook, without specifying the exact number of injured.
And in Fayetteville, Arkansas, six people were taken to hospitals with gunshot wounds after an early morning shooting.
No arrests have been made, police said in a press release. A preliminary investigation indicates that an altercation preceded the shooting.
On Friday, two people were killed in separate shootings at Spirit Halloween stores in California and Michigan.
Police said a shooting inside a store at an enclosed shopping center in Fairfield, California, was a targeted attack. Relatives said the 31-year-old woman who died was pregnant. Six other people were wounded, according to police.
In Madison Heights, Michigan, just north of Detroit, a 21-year-old man was shot and killed Friday afternoon at a Spirit Halloween store. Another man who was assaulted by bystanders as police took him into custody was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
