Three people have been confirmed dead after a mass shooting that took place at a Halloween party in Long Beach, California on Tuesday.
The party was being held in a private home, and details are still relatively unclear. The victims were standing in the backyard of the party.
The incident took place in the late evening, shortly before 11 pm, when authorities arrived at the scene in response to alerts of shots fired.
They discovered three men — Melvin Williams II, 35, of Gardena, Ricardo Torres, 28, of Inglewood, and Maurice Poe Jr., 25 — who were already dead, and several other victims with serious injuries.
It is not yet known if there have been further issues as a result of the shooting, as details have been coming out rather slowly.
It is also not known why the shooter chose to carry out their heinous act in the first place, and no motive has been identified yet.
Reports indicate that the shooter was not captured and is still at large. It is not known if there were multiple attackers involved or just one.
Members of the public have been urged to exercise caution in their daily lives and follow common safety guidelines.
The situation is still tense, and there have been various conflicting reports that have done little to help.
Many suspect that there might be more to the story than observers are hearing, but it will take a while for the truth to come out at this point, given the sensitive nature of the situation.
At 10:44 pm, @lbfirefighters responded to shooting at a residence on the 2700 block of 7th Street. An MCI was declared with a total of 12 patients. 3 confirmed fatalities (adult males) 9 patients transported to local area hospitals. 5 immediate & 4 delayed. PIO onscene. pic.twitter.com/k8txxNqZfL
— Long Beach Fire (CA) (@LBFD) October 30, 2019
Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna stated: “This is a tragic incident that is not at all reflective of our community. We are committed to working tirelessly to bring those responsible to justice and provide the victims with the services they need.”
Anyone with more information about the shooters has been urged to contact authorities, as the police are still actively investigating the tragic incident and are looking for more clues.
Most locals reacted with a lot of sadness, while others are using this to push for gun control although, from initial reports, stricter laws might not have been enough to prevent the tragedy from happening.
Some are also arguing that the area has become a bit more complicated in recent months. One person stated: “This is crazy, I feel Long Beach has become such an unsafe city, it is really sad.”
Reports say that the tragedy was not gang-related.
