MILWAUKEE—A fight over a social media post escalated into a shooting that wounded five people outside a Milwaukee high school, police said Wednesday.
Four teenage girls and a woman were shot about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday outside Rufus King High School where a basketball game was taking place, Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said at news conference. Police say the suspect is a man known to them who remained at large.
Norman said two females were fighting outside the school and a group had gathered to watch them when the gunman opened fire, striking the five victims, including two 15-year-olds, and three others ages 16, 17 and 20.
The victims were treated at hospitals and their wounds were not believed to be life-threatening. Police are still investigating whether any of the victims shot were involved in the initial fight, officials said.
Norman and other officials at the news conference expressed frustration that it was an adult who escalated the fight by pulling out a gun.
“To have adults respond to a situation like this and use that level of violence is unacceptable, unacceptable on all levels,” the chief said.
Office of Violence Prevention Director Arnitta Holliman urged adults to do their part in mitigating conflict among young people.
“At this point, either you help us in this fight to prevent and interrupt violence or you are a bystander while blood is shed,” Holliman said.
“Here we are again talking about the tide wave of violence,” said Acting Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, adding that the fight was over a “silly, stupid dispute on Facebook, on social media.”
Norman said no one inside the school was injured and police believe there is no threat to any Milwaukee public schools.
It has been a violent start to the new year with the homicides of six people at a Milwaukee duplex and the shooting of three Milwaukee area law enforcement officers in separate January incidents.
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