Five people were injured and one was killed during a shooting at softball game at an Atlanta park on Sunday, authorities said. Among the injured are a 6-year-old boy, Atlanta Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said during a news conference.
Officers responded to Atlanta’s Dunbar Park at around 7 p.m. on Sunday. “What we know so far is that there was some type of baseball, softball game ongoing, and some type of argument ensued and next thing you know, there was an exchange of gunfire,” Hampton said.
A male in his 30 was transported to the hospital, and is now deceased, Hampton said. A 6-year-old child was also injured and transported to the hospital in critical condition. Hampton said detectives are still investigating whether there were relationships between the six victims.
“Right now the other victims that we know of are stable,” he said.
“We’re asking the citizens to resolve conflict without weapons,” Hampton said. “We’re asking people to step away, to let bygones be bygones. But any time that we have any tragedy like this, any death is a tragedy. And as we have kids that were also involved – again, we were told there were a lot of people out here – this is not a place for gunplay. Leave the guns at home.”
The Birmingham Police Department is also investigating a homicide following a shooting over the weekend. Officers received reports of gunshots just after 3 a.m. on Sunday, Officer Truman Fitzgerald said in a Facebook video. They found an adult female victim in a parking lot suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. The victim was pronounced dead.
Four others victims were transported to area hospitals.
Police believe multiple people were in the parking lot, where drivers were participating in exhibition driving activities like burnouts. Tow cars collided, which lead to a dispute. The dispute escalated and multiple people were shot. Police have one person of interest in custody.
In Cincinnati this weekend, a suspect opened fire on Main Street, hitting nine people. None of the victims are in critical condition, a police spokesperson said at a press conference. A police officer opened fire on the suspect, who fled. It is unclear if the suspect was hit. Police are still searching for the suspect.
The city also experienced another shooting in the city’s central business section, where two other people were shot, the police spokesperson said.
In Pittsburgh on Sunday, one person was killed and three others were injured during a shooting on the city’s North Side. Investigators are still searching for the suspect or suspects, CBS Pittsburgh reports.
There have been 405 mass shootings in 2022, according to Gun Violence Archive, which uses local news and police reports to keep track of shootings. In 2020, there were 611 mass shootings throughout the course of the whole year.
In 2021, the number of active shooter incidents in the U.S. rose by 52.5% from the previous year. From 2017 to 2021, active shootings increased a whopping 96.8%, the FBI said in a report published earlier this year. The data only included active shooter incidents, characterized as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.”