3 Killed, 9 Injured in Shooting at California Home

Police investigate the scene of a shooting in Long Beach on Oct. 30, 2019. (Scott Varley/The Orange County Register via AP)

Authorities say three people were fatally shot and nine others injured at a home in Long Beach, California.

Long Beach fire spokesman Jake Heflin says firefighters arrived at the home around 10:44 p.m. on Oct. 29 to a scene “filled with chaos,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

The department said three men were dead and the nine others were injured. The three dead were all males in their 20s.

All of the victims were adults, and the injuries ranged from life-threatening to non-life-threatening, Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Karen Owens said.

The shooter fled the scene and there is no description of him or her at this time, Owens said.

Emergency workers cordon off an area to deal with victims of a shooting in Long Beach, Ca., early on Oct. 30, 2019. (KABC via AP)

The incident took place during a party at the home and people at the residence were wearing Halloween costumes, Owens said.

Forty-seven-year-old Oswaldo Morales told the L.A. Times he heard as many as 17 shots. Some residents said they heard up to 20 shots.

Morales said minutes later police and fire vehicles could be heard in the neighborhood.

Homicide investigators are interviewing victims to learn more about the incident.

US Murders Drop Most Since 1990s

Not since 1999 has the United States seen the number of murders drop so precipitously as in 2018, when 1,080 fewer people died of homicide or non-negligent manslaughter than the year before, according to national crime statistics released by the FBI on Sept. 30.

The murder rate dropped to 5 per 100,000 residents, a decline of 6.8 percent from 2017.

Overall, the violent crime rate dropped by 3.9 percent, most notably the robbery rate, which slid by 12.6 percent in 2018. The property crime rate, meanwhile, decreased by 6.9 percent. The burglary rate, in particular, declined by 12.5 percent.

The past two years saw a decrease from the major crime spike in the two years prior. Between 2014 and 2016, the murder rate had increased by more than 20 percent. The country hadn’t seen a two-year increase so steep for decades.

Winners and Losers

As usual, more than 80 percent of violent crimes were concentrated in cities in 2018. There are some examples of notable improvements though. Violent crime decreased by about 25 percent since 2016 in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Miami, Virginia Beach, and Minneapolis.

On the other hand, some cities that have historically maintained lower crime rates have seen substantial increases. Violent crime was up since 2016 in San Jose, California, by 14 percent, Seattle by 18 percent, Denver by 14 percent, Oklahoma City by 13 percent, and a whopping 40 percent in Aurora, Colorado. Also, murders were up by nearly 70 percent in Seattle and almost 80 percent in Portland, Oregon.

Philadelphia was the only city with a population above a million where murders went up since 2016—by almost 30 percent.

Epoch Times reporter Petr Svab, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.