Global Courant 2023-05-01 18:08:35
Authorities say masked gunmen fired without warning into a crowd at a teen party at a South Carolina park this weekend, injuring nine people
COLUMBIA, SC — Masked gunmen fired without warning into a crowd at a teen party at a South Carolina park this weekend, injuring nine people, a sheriff said.
All nine people hit by gunfire are expected to survive, as well as a woman injured when she was run over by a fleeing car and another person injured on her hand, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said in a Sunday update on shoot Saturday.
“So happy and so happy and so grateful that at this point we believe everyone is going to survive,” Lott said. “It’s not because those who did the shooting didn’t try.”
Deputies were called to Meadowlake Park near Columbia around 1:20 a.m. Saturday and found only a few people at the scene. Not long after, hospitals began reporting multiple gunshot victims arriving at the emergency room, deputies said.
Teens from several high schools had gathered in the park for the after-hours “flash party” that was announced on social media and not sponsored by the local recreation board, Lott said.
“These were people posting it on social media saying, ‘Come,’ and the bad people came,” the sheriff said.
The shooting appeared unprovoked, Lott said.
“If you think wearing a mask, sneaking around a building and shooting into a crowd makes you a man — no, you’re a coward,” the sheriff said.
Many of the injured were hit in the back as they tried to run away, Lott said.
Dozens of shell casings from various guns have been collected in the park, but Lott said he wasn’t ready to say exactly how many people may have shot.
The injured are between 16 and 20 years old. Lott said some were undergoing surgery on Sunday.
Officers arrested two teens in a vehicle that drove away from the crime scene with its headlights off and found a gun thrown from the vehicle, but Lott said investigators are still trying to determine if it was used in the shooting.
Lott said he expects his deputies to make other arrests soon.
