New year sees wave of gun violence
2019 was a deadly year for gun violence, and New Year’s Eve was no different.
Within hours of the new decade, many people had lost their lives, including two juvenile boys.
Several of the shootings happened at nightclubs and bars.
Two men were fatally shot when a gunman opened fire at a 2020 celebration at a club in Orlando, Florida, sending nearly 250 partygoers running for safety, local news outlets said.
At a nightclub in Lubbock, Texas, a gunman killed two men, 17 and 24.
In Huntington, West Virginia, at least seven people were injured after being shot inside a bar early New Year’s Day. More than a dozen shell casings were found outside the bar and in a parking lot across the street.
Four people in St. Louis were shot to death in the early morning hours. Three were found dead in one location, where a fourth person was shot in the leg but survived. One person was fatally shot and another wounded in a separate incident.
A juvenile boy was fatally shot in Des Moines, Iowa, police said.
Two men were fatally shot in Philadelphia.
The wave of shootings across the nation concludes a year that saw more mass killings than any other year dating back to at least the 1970s, according to a database compiled by the Associated Press, USA TODAY and Northeastern University.
More than 210 people died in mass killing in 2019, defined as when four or more people are killed. In all, there were 41 mass killings, including 33 mass shootings in locations such as El Paso and Odessa, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Jersey City, New Jersey.