California mass shooting: A 17-year-old girl was killed and five other people were wounded in a shooting early Saturday at a party near a college campus in Northern California, police said.
Officers responding around 3.30 am to reports of gunfire found six people shot at an apartment building in Chico, police Chief Billy Aldridge said. All the victims were taken to hospitals, and the teenager died at a hospital, he said.
Two men, ages 21 and 19, and a 17-year-old girl remained hospitalised in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries, the chief said. Two other men, ages 18 and 20, were treated at the hospital and released, Aldridge said.
No information of shooter: Police
The shooting appeared to be an isolated incident, and there was no ongoing threat to the community, police said. They released no information on the shooter.
Police had been called to the same address about 30 minutes before the shooting and arrested a man on suspicion of brandishing a firearm, Aldridge said.
That suspect matched the description of a man who was asked to leave a separate party about a mile away around 12.30 am, Aldridge said. A fight broke out at the earlier party, and two people were hospitalized after being struck in the head, one with a bottle and one with a firearm, the chief said.
The investigation was ongoing Saturday. Both parties were in neighbourhoods near California State University, Chico, in the city of about 101,000 residents 145 km north of Sacramento.
Mass shootings in US surged in past few years
Notably, the country has witnessed a surge in mass killing in the past few years. According to reports, the US is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, replaying the horror on a loop roughly once a week so far this year. The carnage has taken 88 lives in 17 mass killings over 111 days. Each time, the killers wielded firearms. Only 2009 was marked by as many such tragedies in the same period of time.
Gruesome records have been set within the last decade. The data shows a high of 45 mass killings in 2019 and 230 people slain in such tragedies in 2017. That year, 60 people died when a gunman opened fire over an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. The massacre still accounts for the most fatalities from a mass shooting in modern America.
(With inputs from AP)
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