Two teenage boys were killed and eight others were injured in a shooting at a rental home party in Pittsburgh early Sunday, one of at least three mass shootings in the United States over the weekend.
The other two shootings – both in South Carolina – left a total of 18 people with gunshot wounds, reviving calls among advocates for meaningful gun control legislation.
In Pittsburgh, police said the equipment that detected the shooting led officers to go to an address on Suismon Street, where at least 10 people were shot dead at around 12.30 on Sunday.
The first responders took several of the victims to hospital, including two 17-year-old boys who were later pronounced dead by doctors. Others who were shot but survived drove to the hospital on their own.
There were at least 50 shots fired at the home in question by many people involved in a fight, police said. A handful of other partygoers who were injured but not shot received cuts and broken bones as they jumped out of home windows in a desperate attempt to escape, investigators added.
Authorities did not announce any arrests immediately, although Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert promised that his officers “will do everything [they] those responsible can get it. “
“This should not have happened,” Schubert told an afternoon news conference. “We sang about it.”
The short-term rental provider Airbnb has issued a statement stating that the person who rented the apartment is now banned from using the service for life.
The person has violated the company’s policy of banning parties, said in a statement Airbnb spokesman Ben Bright. “We share the outrage of the Pittsburgh community over this tragic gun violence,” Breit said in a statement. “Our hearts are before all who were [affected]including relatives of the dead, injured victims and neighbors. “
Investigators found the violence erupted at a short-term rental party that attracted about 200 guests, mostly under the age of 18, police said in a statement.
Authorities did not immediately reveal the names of the boys killed.
Meanwhile, also early Sunday, a shooting that broke out at a nightclub in Hampton County, South Carolina, injured nine people. None of the injuries reported at Cara’s Lounge, about 80 miles west of Charleston, were fatal, officials said, who did not immediately announce arrests in the case.
The bloodshed occurred about 90 miles north of and just hours later a separate shooting at a mall in the South Carolina capital of Colombia left nine with bullet wounds. The wounded ranged in age from 15 to 73, and a man, 22-year-old Jewene Price, was jailed after the shooting on charges of illegal pistol carrying.
Price’s bail was set at $ 25,000 on Sunday afternoon.
The violence in Pittsburgh and South Carolina came as many American Christians prepared to attend church to worship Easter. They also happened after at least two other high-profile shootings elsewhere in the United States.
Six people were killed and 12 wounded in a shooting in downtown Sacramento on April 3. Another on Tuesday fired 10 shots at the New York subway.
Police have arrested suspects in both the Sacramento and New York shootings.
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