Two victims died after five people were shot during an altercation at a late-night cockfight Friday in Honolulu, police said.
Honolulu police responded to a call about shots fired just past midnight Friday and were searching Saturday for a suspect believed to be in his 20s who allegedly shot the others who were attending the event, KHON-TV reported.
“At the end of the fight a group of males started arguing and then it escalated to a physical altercation, at some point gunshots were fired hitting the five people who were in the immediate area,” Honolulu Police Department Lt. Deena Thoemmes told KHON-TV.
Police said a 59-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man were pronounced dead after arriving at a hospital, KHON-TV reported. Officials believe the victims are related, KITV reported.
Three men aged 38, 40 and 57 sustained gunshot wounds but were treated and released from a hospital, KHON-TV reported.
“I heard people running and driving out like it was a racetrack. People were screaming and telling everyone to run,” a nearby resident told KITV.
Police said the circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear.
“I don’t understand the circumstances from this, it could have stemmed from something totally different and they just happened to be in the same area at the same time,” Thoemmes told KHON-TV.
Honolulu city officials did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking additional information.
Cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states but continues in some, including Hawaii, where fights sometimes draw hundreds of people.
Just last month, police in Hawaii arrested four men at a cockfight in Kealakekua, Hawaii News Now reported. Authorities estimated more than 800 people were watching the illegal event.
In December, seven members of an Alabama family were sentenced for running what authorities called “one of the largest cockfighting operations” in the country. Last August, authorities in Southern California broke up a large cockfighting event and said they were forced to euthanize nearly 150 roosters.
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