North Carolina authorities say they are pursuing criminal charges against adults who allegedly “stood by” a scheduled fight among teenagers that led to a mass shooting that killed two people and wounded five others on Monday.
“We’re sending the message that if you stand by, encourage, aid or abet our juveniles in delinquent behavior, we will not tolerate it,” William H Penn, the Winston-Salem police chief, said in a joint video message on Tuesday alongside the local sheriff and district attorney.
The violence brought the number of mass shootings in the US to at least 117 for the year so far, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan resource.
It erupted one day after the deadliest US shooting in nearly two years killed eight children in Shreveport, Louisiana. Before police fatally shot the killer in that case, he had wounded three additional people: his wife, with whom he shared four of the slain children; another woman, who was the mother of three other of the slain children; and a 13-year-old boy.
Such cases have reignited the ongoing debate in the US about whether the country should implement more substantial gun control. The US reports world-leading rates of mass shootings year in and year out, but Congress has not heeded pleas from many in the public for more meaningful restrictions to firearms access.
With respect to Monday’s mass shooting in Winston-Salem, police said that the case was initially reported to them as a fight in progress at a public park.
“While en route, additional information was received indicating that shots had been fired and multiple individuals had been struck by gunfire,” the police department said on Monday evening. The agency added that a “preliminary investigation indicates the incident stemmed from a pre-planned fight involving juveniles”.
“When the individuals met at the park, the situation escalated, resulting in multiple people exchanging gunfire,” police said.
Authorities said the gunfire killed at least two people, whom they identified as Erubey Romero Medina, 17, and Daniel Jimenez Millian, 16.
Meanwhile, four girls and one boy from ages 14 to 19 were wounded, with their injuries ranging from “critical to minor” in nature, police said.
Police on Monday said an investigation was ongoing, but they made clear that they suspect “some of those injured may have also been involved in the shooting”.
“There were no other suspects being sought,” Penn said in his video on Tuesday, which he made alongside the sheriff, Bobby Kimbrough Jr, and the district attorney, Jim O’Neill.
Yet, he added, there would also be “charges for the adults who stood by during this fight”.
“We will be charging those adults – although they are young adults, they’re adults,” Penn said in the video, without providing more details.
On Monday, Kimbrough Jr said: “I feel like everyone else. I’m frustrated, I’m angry, I’m sad. This didn’t have to happen.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
