Florida shooting: two dead and 18 injured during Halloween celebrations
A fight between two groups turned deadly in Florida when a shooting in a Tampa street during Halloween festivities resulted in two deaths and 18 people hospitalized early Sunday morning, police said.
Officers responded to the shooting in Tampa just before 3am on the 1600 block of East 7th Avenue in the Ybor City area, the Tampa police chief, Lee Bercaw, said during a press conference at the scene.
The fight occurred in an area with several bars and clubs, and there were large numbers of late night revelers in the area at the time, Bercaw said. Police were not immediately sure if the people involved in the fight were inside any of the bars before the shooting.
Video posted online showed people in Halloween costumes drinking and talking on the street when shots rang out, creating a stampede. Some people toppled over metal tables and took cover behind them. Video from the aftermath showed police officers treating several people lying wounded on the ground.
A volley of about a dozen shots rang out followed a few seconds later by a volley of about eight shots.
“It was a disturbance or a fight between two groups. And in this fight between two groups we had hundreds of innocent people involved that were in the way,” Bercaw said.
He did not provide details of the injuries suffered by the victims taken to area hospitals.
One suspect turned himself in to police, and investigators believe there were at least two shooters involved, Bercaw said.
Police are still investigating the reason for the fight between the two groups, he said.
Officers were at the scene at the time of the shooting but none were injured, Bercaw said.