Two people were shot dead and five others wounded after a gunman opened fire in a park in Richmond, Virginia, on Tuesday as high school graduates and their families emerged from a theater where commencement exercises had just concluded, police said.
Police arrested a suspect, an 19-year-old man, and planned to charge him with two counts of second-degree murder in addition to other possible offenses, interim Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards and other officials told reporters.
The shooting occurred outside the Altria Theater on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, where local high school graduation ceremonies were being held.
Edwards called the shooter's behavior "disgusting and cowardly," since his dispute appeared to be with just one person.
"When you have a crowd like this, innocent people are going to be caught up in the mayhem, and that's what happened today. " Edwards said. "Obviously, this should have been a safe space...It's just incredibly tragic that someone decided to bring a gun to this incident and rain terror on our community."
The United States has grown accustomed to mass shootings in public places such as schools, shopping centers and churches.
The mass shooting was the country's 279th in the first 157 days of 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive, using t
The victims of the shooting
The deceased were men aged 18 and 36, Edwards said. He did not confirm a WWBT television news report that the victims were father and son.
Among the shooting victims, a 31-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries and four other males aged 14, 32, 55 and 58 were expected to survive, Edwards said.
In addition, a 9-year-old girl was struck by a car in the chaos that ensued, and multiple other people were injured in falls or suffered from anxiety, Edwards said.
The suspect fled the scene on foot and was captured in possession of four handguns, three of which may have been fired, he said, stressing that it was too early in the investigation to be certain.