June 2 (Reuters) – At least two people were injured in multiple shootings of people attending a funeral in the US state of Wisconsin on Thursday, police said.
The incident came after deadly mass shootings at a supermarket in New York, a primary school in Texas and a hospital in Oklahoma.
Numerous shots were fired at the mourning crowd during an afternoon funeral at Graceland Cemetery in Racine, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, Racine Police Sergeant Christie Wilcox told reporters.
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One of the victims, a young woman, was treated at a local hospital and released, but the second victim, apparently with more serious injuries, was airlifted to a Milwaukee hospital, Wilcox said.
No suspects have been detained, she said, adding that police are asking anyone with information or video that can help investigators get out. Asked if there could be many shooters involved, Wilcox said he “has no right to say.” And she said she could not confirm initial reports that the shooting may have come from a car.
Mayor Corey Mason issued a statement saying he had ordered police to impose a curfew from 11pm on the weekend for anyone under the age of 18.
“Today’s disgusting shooting in a cemetery, while a family is already mourning the loss of a loved one, is a new low level for these perpetrators of violence in our community. The violence must stop, “Mason wrote.
Milwaukee TV station TMJ4 News, citing family members attending the funeral service, said five relatives of the man who was buried at the time were injured in the shooting, although their condition is unknown immediately.
A man living across the street from the cemetery, Ray Brantley, told TMJ4 News in Milwaukee that he was picking up his daughter from school when he heard a shooting and that his son was playing basketball nearby and was close to the shooting.
“Who in their right mind would go to film a funeral in broad daylight,” Brantley said in a camera interview. “These people attended the funeral.”
The shooting came a day after a gunman killed four people and himself at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Read more
Nineteen students and two teachers were shot dead on May 24 during a siege of a primary school in Uwalde, Texas, which ended when police killed the 18-year-old attacker. Read more
And an 18-year-old staunch supporter of white supremacy, also armed with a semi-automatic weapon, killed 10 people, most of them Black, at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14 in a racially motivated attack.
The suspect, arrested for the Buffalo shooting, pleaded not guilty Thursday to 25 counts in an indictment returned by the grand jury. Read more
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Report by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Edited by Michael Perry and Raju Gopalakrishnan
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.
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