Three people were reportedly killed and eight others wounded in central Mississippi early Saturday, reports the Guardian.
At least two people fired guns at a group of several hundred people who were celebrating a high school football team’s win at an, authorities said.
The mass shooting near the community of Lexington was preceded by a fight among some of the men at the celebration, but deputies had not yet learned what sparked the fight, said Holmes county sheriff Willie March.
Anywhere from 200 to 300 people were on the trail celebrating, and the gunfire sent them fleeing, the sheriff said in a phone interview with media.
“It was chaos, to tell you the truth,” March said. “The shooting just started and people started running.”
The shooting about 5 miles (8km) outside Lexington followed a football game several hours earlier at the Holmes county consolidated school’s homecoming celebration. After the victory, scores of young people headed to the trail to celebrate.
Lexington is located more than 60 miles (96km) north of Jackson.
Two of the victims who died were 19, and the third was 25. The injured victims were airlifted to local hospitals.
Deputies were collecting ammunition at the scene in an effort to determine how many weapons were fired, said March, whose county has a population of about 16,000.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there had been about 420 mass shootings across the US heading into this weekend.
The non-partisan archive explains a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.
Perennially high rates of mass shootings in the US have prompted some in the country to call for more substantial federal gun control, though Congress has largely been unable or unintended to implement such measures.
Bd-Pratidin English/ Afsar Munna
