A string of shootings took place across the United States on one of the bloodiest Memorial Day weekends that left multiple people dead and dozens more injured.
This Memorial Day weekend, spanning Saturday, Sunday, and the federal holiday on Monday, a total of 352 shootings occurred, according to the nonprofit research organization, the Gun Violence Archive (GVA).
The shootings took place across the states of Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, California, and Pennsylvania.
Of those shootings, at least eight were mass shootings, according to multiple reports. The GVA defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.
In one incident on Saturday evening, six individuals, believed to be teenagers and young adults, were wounded during an exchange of gunfire in a downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee business district in what Mayor Tim Kelly said was probably “an altercation between other teenagers.”
Several gunshot victims were taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment and two of the injuries were life-threatening, Police spokesperson Jeremy Eames confirmed. A person of interest was also detained by police shortly after the shooting.
Just hours after the incident in Tennessee, one person was killed and another seven were injured, including a 9-year-old, after a shooting broke out at a festival in Taft, Oklahoma, ABC News reports.
People place flowers at a makeshift memorial for the 21 victims of an elementary school mass shooting in the town square in Uvalde, Texas, on May 29, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
People visit a makeshift memorial for the 21 victims of an elementary school mass shooting in the town square in Uvalde, Texas, on May 29, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Law enforcement said that the deceased is a 39-year-old female. The seven other victims all have non-life-threatening injuries.
Another incident saw a 1-year-old boy shot dead during a drive-by shooting in downtown Pittsburgh, while in another in Merced County, Calif., one person was killed and three were injured during a shooting at a party over the weekend, according to local reports.
Elsewhere in Maryland, at least four people were killed via shootings, and four more were injured, including several teenagers.
ABC30 in California reported that three teenagers were wounded and one man killed in a shooting in Fresno Saturday night. The three teenagers were expected to survive, but the man, in his 20s, died from his injuries.
A shooting also broke out at a house party in Malabar, Florida, on Saturday night, striking four people between 15 and 18 years old, 1010 News reported, while in Illinois, five people remain in serious condition after they were shot in Chicago’s West Garfield Park, Fox32 reported.
The latest incidents come just days after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 that claimed the lives of 19 children and two adults.
Salvador Ramos, 18, allegedly shot his grandmother, Celia Martinez Gonzales, in the face at their home before driving roughly 2.3 miles to the school and opening fire inside the building. He was later shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent.
Officials are still investigating the incident and have not yet established a motive for Ramos’s attack, which has sparked a renewed debate over stricter gun-reform legislation.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, 230 mass shootings have taken place so far in the United States since the start of this year alone. In total, approximately 17,911 people have died from gun violence in America. Of those, 150 were children aged up to 11, and 529 were teens aged 12 up to 17.
