By Idriss LAWAL
Ten people, including a suspect, were wounded in a mass shooting that erupted early on Sunday in a busy commercial district near downtown Tucson, Arizona, police said.
Police officers on routine foot patrol rushed toward the sound of gunfire at about 2 a.m. local time and encountered a suspect, to whom they gave “repeated commands” and then shot, according to Tucson Police Department spokesperson Frank Magos.
The officers rendered first-aid to the suspected gunman, and he was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening wounds, Magos told reporters in a briefing near the scene.
Nine other people were wounded, apparently before police arrived on the scene, and they were taken to hospitals in critical condition, many of them with gunshots to their extremities, Magos said. All the victims were adults, and no police officers were injured, he said.
Police offered no official details on what may have precipitated the gun violence, which occurred amid large numbers of people out on the street for the night. “It’s very vibrant here, very lively crowd,” Magos said.
The shooting grew out of a confrontation between two groups of people known to each other, and bystanders were struck by gunfire, local television station KGUN-TV, an ABC affiliate, reported, citing police sources.
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“A shooter recklessly began shooting in a crowded area striking nine people before being stopped by a Tucson Police officer,” Mayor Regina Romero said in a statement quoted by KGUN. “All victims were stabilized and taken to the hospital, where we are hopeful they will all recover,” she added.
Sunday’s incident in Tucson, the second-most populous city in Arizona, brought the number of U.S. mass shootings to 257 so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an online database of shootings collected from law enforcement, media, and other sources daily. The archive defines a mass shooting as an incident of gun violence with at least four victims injured or killed.
