Mass shootings claim lives at gatherings over the July 4th holiday

This week, as Americans celebrated the Fourth of July, mass shootings occurred at festivals, block parties, and other gatherings in a few locations.

More than a dozen people have died and almost 60 have been injured in shootings that broke out in Washington, D.C., Louisiana, Florida, Philadelphia, Texas, and Baltimore, injuring children as young as 2 years old.

At least three individuals were killed and ten others were injured late on Tuesday night in Shreveport, Louisiana, according to Shreveport police Sgt. Angie Willhite. According to her, the others were anticipated to live while one of the injured was in critical condition on Wednesday. There have been no detentions.

“We are struggling with getting information from those who were present. We’re not getting a lot of cooperation,” Willhite said.

Police Chief Wayne Smith announced at a news conference that a second body had been discovered in the vicinity early on Wednesday.

“Chances are likely that it is a result of what occurred here last night,” Smith said.

According to Tabatha Taylor, a councilwoman representing the neighbourhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, the block party where the shooting occurred has been hosted around the Fourth of July holiday for at least ten years.

The nation’s capital’s Independence Day celebrations also descended into violence early on Wednesday, when nine individuals who were outdoors taking in the festivities were shot and injured, according to the police.

A 9-year-old and a 17-year-old were among those killed when police reacted to the mass shooting at 1 a.m. in a neighbourhood 20 minutes’ drive east of the White House, according to Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Leslie Parsons. According to authorities, the victims, who were not recognised publicly, were hospitalised with injuries that weren’t life-threatening.

According to Parsons, who described the incident as targeted, the rounds were fired from a dark SUV that was seen travelling through the neighbourhood. Police said it was unclear whether there were multiple shooters in the car and that no arrests had been made.

A 7-year-old was killed in Florida when shooting broke out during an altercation between two groups who had gathered to celebrate the Fourth of July along a causeway that connects Tampa Bay, according to authorities.

The boy and his grandfather were reportedly in a truck Tuesday when a round was shot into it, striking the older man in his hand and the youngster in the head.

Although no one has been arrested, according to authorities, the youngster and his grandfather were not the intended targets, Tampa Police Department Deputy Chief Calvin Johnson said on Wednesday.

An altercation over Jet Skis, which one group said were approaching children playing in the water too closely, led to the shooting.

“There was no reason — no excuse that an argument can lead to gunfire, much less an argument over Jet Skis,” Johnson said at a news conference. “Now we got citizens’ families, folks in our communities, that have to deal with this tragic incident that happened on the Fourth of July.”

In other regions, city streets proved lethal even before the holiday.

A shooter wearing a bulletproof vest started shooting on the streets of Philadelphia on Monday night, killing five people and injuring two young boys, ages 2 and 13, before turning himself in, according to authorities.

Authorities reported that when several guys opened fire indiscriminately on a crowd of hundreds that had gathered in a Texas neighbourhood after a festival in the area, three people were killed and eight others were injured.

Late on Monday night, only two hours after the annual ComoFest had ended, a shooting took place in the Como neighbourhood of Fort Worth.

At an early-morning Sunday block party in Baltimore, 30 people were shot, two of whom died. Authorities reported that many of the shooting victims were minors.