Authorities in South Carolina are investigating a shooting early Sunday at a nightclub that left at least nine people injured. It was the state’s second mass shooting of the Easter holiday weekend, and the third nationwide.
At least 31 people were injured in the shootings in South Carolina and Pittsburgh, which resulted in the deaths of two youngsters early Sunday.
According to an email from South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division, which is investigating the incident at Cara’s Lounge in Hampton County, some 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Charleston, no one was killed. The nightclub’s phone number was unanswered.
Shots were fired during a party at a short-term rental property in Pittsburgh, killing two male youths and injuring at least eight others. According to the city’s Police Chief Scott Schubert, the “vast majority” of the hundreds of people at the party were under the age of 21. Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross, both 17, were identified as the two victims by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Police were reviewing evidence at as many as eight distinct crime scenes covering a few streets around the rented property, according to Schubert. Investigators think there were multiple shooters.
The two shootings occurred just one day after gunfire erupted at a busy mall in Columbia, South Carolina’s state capital, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of the nightclub shooting on Sunday. Columbia Police Chief W.H. “Skip” Holbrook stated Saturday that nine persons were shot and five others were injured while attempting to leave the scene at the Columbiana Centre. The victims were between the ages of 15 and 73. None of the injuries were life-threatening.
“We don’t believe this was random,” Holbrook added. “We believe they knew each other and that the gunshot was caused by something.”
Jewayne M. Price, 22, is the only person arrested in connection with the mall shooting so far. He was one of three persons first detained by law enforcement as a person of interest. Todd Rutherford, Price’s attorney, informed news outlets on Sunday that his client discharged a revolver at the mall in self-defense. Price faces a charge of unlawfully carrying a firearm, according to Rutherford, because he legally possessed his gun but did not have a licence to carry it.
On Sunday, a judge agreed to release Price go on a $25,000 surety bail, according to Columbia police. According to authorities, he was to be placed under home arrest with an ankle monitor.
“He did it without provocation.” According to WMBF-TV, Rutherford stated, “He phoned the police, turned himself in, turned over the pistol that was used in this, and made a statement to the Columbia Police Department.” “That’s why he was released on a $25,000 bail.”
Price will be allowed to go from home to work within specific hours each day, according to police. Price is not allowed to contact the victims or anybody else who was involved in the shooting.
Residents of South Carolina who are 21 years old or older can obtain a firearms permit, which permits them to carry guns openly or hidden as of last year. They must complete an eight-hour firearms course and pass a background check that involves fingerprinting.
In addition to the three major shootings during the Easter weekend, there has been further gun violence in recent days. A shooter opened fire in a New York subway vehicle last week, hurting ten passengers. The next day, a suspect was apprehended. Six people were killed and 12 others were injured in a gunfight between rival gangs in Sacramento, California, earlier this month, as bars closed in a busy downtown area just blocks from the state Capitol.
A man and a woman were killed and ten people were injured in a shooting inside a busy nightclub in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a week ago. Last month, ten individuals were shot and many more were injured while attempting to flee a spring break party in Dallas.
