Two people are dead and at least eight others were wounded Friday night after multiple shootings near the coast in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Police officers say officials were on patrol in the town’s resort area when they heard several gunshots at 11:22 p.m. according to a statement on Saturday. When they got to the scene, they found several victims suffering from gunshot wounds.
One woman died on the scene and at least eight people were rushed to hospitals for their injuries. Authorities said the injuries ranged from “serious to life-threatening”.
A Virginia Beach police officer was also rushed to hospital for “minor injuries”.
The department’s homicide squad is investigating what happened, but police say there are no suspects yet.
Authorities said there was also a shooting involving officials on Saturday – just blocks from the shooting near the waterfront.
Department officials said a male suspect died at the scene in the shooting. Authorities said they believe the second shooting was related to the first, but did not provide any details on how they are linked. The officer involved in the shooting was put on administrative leave pending an investigation which the police described as standard practice.
In addition to the shootings, a police officer was hit by a car and taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
“What you can see is that we have a very chaotic incident – a very chaotic night on the beach. Lots of different crime scenes,” said Police Chief Paul Neudigate.
The Virginia Beach shootings follow mass shootings in the Atlanta area and in Boulder, Colo., that month in which a total of 18 people were killed. The Virginia Beach community also saw mass shootings in 2019when a man killed 12 people and injured several others in a city building.
