Two teenagers were killed and eight others were injured after gunfire erupted at a party at a short-term rental home in Pittsburgh early Sunday, one of at least three mass shootings across the United States on Easter weekend.
The other two shootings – both in Caroline from the south – left a total of 18 people with gunshot wounds, once again reigniting calls among advocates for meaningful gun control legislation.
In Pittsburgh, police said equipment that detects gunshots prompted officers to attend an address on Suismon Street where at least 10 people were shot around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
First responders brought several of the victims to hospital, including two 17-year-old boys whom doctors later pronounced dead. Others who were shot but survived made it to the hospital on their own.
There had been at least 50 shots fired at the house in question by several people who had been drawn into some sort of fight, police said. A handful of other revelers who were injured but not shot suffered cuts and broken bones while jumping out of the windows of the house in a desperate attempt to get to safety, investigators added.
Authorities have not announced any immediate arrests, although Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert has promised his officers “will do everything [they] can to get those responsible”.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” Schubert said at an afternoon press conference. “We’re fed up.”
Short-term rental provider Airbnb released a statement saying the person who rented the house was now banned from using the service for life.
The person violated a company policy prohibiting parties, Airbnb spokesperson Ben Breit said in a statement. “We share the Pittsburgh community’s outrage at this tragic gun violence,” Breit’s statement read. “Our hearts go out to all who were [affected]including relatives of those who lost their lives, injured victims and neighbours.
Investigators determined the party where the violence erupted drew about 200 guests, most of them under the age of 18, police said in a statement.
Pittsburgh officials later identified the two slain boys as Matthew Steffy-Ross and Jaiden Brown.
Meanwhile, also early Sunday, gunfire erupted at a nightclub in Hampton County, South Carolina, injuring 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 any arrests in the case.
That bloodshed happened about 90 miles north of, and just hours later, a separate shooting at a mall in South Carolina’s capital, Columbia, left nine people with gunshot wounds. The injured ranged in age from 15 to 73, and a man – Jewayne Price, 22 – was jailed in connection with the shooting for illegally carrying a gun.
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 go to church to worship on Easter Sunday. They also happened after at least two other high-profile shootings elsewhere in the United States.
A shooting in downtown Sacramento on April 3 left six dead and 12 injured. Another on Tuesday left 10 bullets in a New York subway.
Police have arrested suspects in the Sacramento and New York shootings.
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