A 14-year-old boy and a 22-year-old are dead and 18 hospitalized after shooting erupted during a fight between two groups of people in the midst of Halloween celebrations on the streets of Tampa, Florida, early Sunday.
The deadly incident happened just before 3 a.m. near bars and clubs in the city’s Ybor Cty neighborhood, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw told reporters.
BREAKING: Multiple people shot in a shooting in Ybor City neighborhood in Tampa, Florida
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 29, 2023
“It was a disturbance or a fight between two groups,” Bercaw said, according to WTVT. “And in this fight between two groups, we had hundreds of innocent people involved that were in the way.”
Video posted online shows some of the hundreds of people, many in costume, scrambling to safety as shots ring out, the station said. Video from the aftermath shows police officers treating wounded people lying on the ground.
Several officers were already on scene when the shooting started. None were injured.
There was no information about the conditions of those injured.
Police said it wasn’t clear what led to the fight.
Bercaw said that a male suspect was arrested, and investigators believe at least one other shooter was involved. He identified the suspect as 22-year-old Tyrrell Phillips, WFLA reported, and said he was charged with second degree murder.
Bercaw said that 15 of the injured were shot.
Multiple people shot in a shooting in Ybor City neighborhood in Tampa, Florida#USA #Tampa #Florida #USA #Shots #Yborcity #Shooting #FloridaShooting
— Sunny Sachan (@TheSunnySachan) October 29, 2023
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor called for sane gun control to help prevent these types of incidents.
“Yet again, a senseless loss of life by those choosing to settle a dispute with firearms,” Castor said. “Lives lost and others forever changed. To what end? The Tampa Police Department had 50 officers deployed in the area at the time, so this is not a law enforcement issue. Bad decisions made in a split second and the proliferation of readily available guns are responsible for these almost daily incidents. We can affect one half of this equation.”
Emmitt Wilson told WFLA that his son was the teen who died.
“This the second child I done lost to gun violence,” he said. “That’s all I got to say. I’m losing my mind right now; I don’t know what to do.”
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[Featured image: WTVT screenshot]
