Four people were killed and seven others were wounded in an Independence Day shooting in Shreveport, La., on Tuesday night, authorities said.
Officers responded to a call of shots fired shortly before midnight at a meeting in the city’s northwest section, Sgt. Angie Willhite of Shreveport police said Wednesday. At least one gunman opened fire on a gathering of about 100 people, she said.
The initial death toll stood at three people overnight, with two people who were pronounced dead at the scene and a third who later died in hospital, but police discovered another body in a nearby field on Wednesday morning, Sergeant Willhite said. All four were adults.
A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear and no arrests have been made. Sergeant Willhite said police found “some rifle casings at the scene”, but it was unclear if the casings were from the same gun.
Sergeant Willhite said the neighborhood is within Shreveport city limits, but is in an area known as “the country town,” where pastures with horses are interspersed with apartment complexes and large clearings or open lots. She described it as a place with “a lot of riding, a lot of family, always a lot of meetings.”
The party was advertised through posters in the neighborhood, she said. When the police arrived, Sergeant Willhite said, officers had difficulty getting through the streets because of the crowds, and they had to leave their cars to reach the injured on foot. One of the injured victims was in “extremely critical condition,” she said, and six others had non-life-threatening injuries.
Sergeant Willhite said investigators were still interviewing people who attended the party.
“There was a big crowd, so we know someone has information,” she said. “So far it’s been challenging.”
The shooting punctuated a long and violent holiday weekend in the United States.
On Monday night in southwest Philadelphia, someone dressed in a ski mask and body armor opened fire on a street, killing five people and wounding two others. Hours later, three people were killed and eight others were injured in Fort Worth, where several men fired into a crowd.
There were other shootings over the weekend, including in Lansing, Mich.and Wichita, Kan., where multiple people opened fire at a nightclub early Sunday, injuring 11 people. In Baltimore, two people were killed and 28 others were injured at a holiday block party on Sunday.