Three people were killed and three others injured in a mass shooting in Columbus, Ohio.
Columbus police said Saturday that six people had been shot. Three of them were pronounced dead, one was in critical condition and two others were in stable condition.
The shooting was reported shortly before 3 a.m. local time in the Italian Village neighborhood north of downtown Columbus. Columbus police said semi-automatic or automatic gunfire and cars were believed to be “speeding away.”
Columbus police said the investigation into the shooting and its circumstances is ongoing.
Deputy Chief Gregory Bodker told reporters that police officers found a “very chaotic scene” when they arrived just two minutes after the shooting.
He said there was a bar on the corner nearby and that police immediately knew the motive for the shooting.
However, it was unclear how many suspects were involved in the incident, and the Franklin County Sheriff's Office used a drone to document the large crime scene, where police collected evidence and video for further investigation.
Daquian Williams, a local resident who witnessed the shooting, said: “It was like a scene from the movies, the kind you never want to see in real life, honestly.”
“(I) honestly believe this is a cry for help,” he said. “It's a cry that we need to come together. We need to learn mentally. This is my daughter. This is what we need to do it for. We have kids living in all these neighborhoods, no matter where we are in this city. And this is our future.”
In another incident about two hours earlier, Columbus Police received a report of a shooting on Vineshire Drive.
According to Columbus police, two men were celebrating 34-year-old Tyler Goins' birthday when an argument broke out and one of the men, 30-year-old Alsaiah Griffin, pulled out a gun and shot Goins.
Griffin turned himself in to police and was charged with murder. Columbus police said Griffin initially fled the scene but then returned to turn himself in.
According to data from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), there are an average of two mass shootings per day in the United States.
GVA data shows that more than 42,000 people will die from gun violence in the United States in 2023.
