America rocked by three mass shootings over Easter weekend; two dead

Authorities in South Carolina are investigating a shooting at a nightclub early Sunday that injured at least nine people. It was the second mass shooting in the state and the third in the nation over the Easter holiday weekend.

Shootings in South Carolina and one in Pittsburgh that killed two minors early Sunday also left at least 31 injured.

No one was killed in the violence at Cara’s Lounge in Hampton County, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Charleston, according to an email from the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division, which is investigating the incident. shooting. A phone call to the nightclub went unanswered.

In Pittsburgh, two young men were killed and at least eight people were injured when shots were fired during a party at a short-term rental property. The “vast majority” of the hundreds of people at the party were minors, city police chief Scott Schubert told reporters. Investigators believe there were multiple shooters, and Schubert said police were processing evidence at as many as eight separate crime scenes that spanned a few blocks around the rental home.

The two shootings come just a day after gunfire erupted at a busy shopping center in the South Carolina state capital, Columbia, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Sunday’s nightclub shooting. Nine people were shot and five people suffered other injuries while trying to flee the scene at the Columbiana Center, Columbia Police Chief WH “Skip” Holbrook said Saturday. The victims were between 15 and 73 years old. Neither suffered life-threatening injuries.

“We don’t think this was random,” Holbrook said. “We believe they knew each other and something led to the shooting.”

The only person arrested in the mall shooting so far is Jewayne M. Price, 22, one of three people initially held by police as a person of interest. Price’s attorney, Todd Rutherford, told the media Sunday that his client fired a gun at the mall, but in self-defense. Rutherford said Price faces a charge of unlawful possession of a handgun because he legally owned his gun but did not have a permit to carry a gun.

Columbia police said on Twitter that a judge agreed Sunday to let Price out of jail on $25,000 bond. He was to be under house arrest with an ankle monitor, police said.

“It was not provoked by him. He called the police, he turned himself in, he turned in the firearm that was used in this, and he gave a statement to the Columbia Police Department,” Rutherford said, according to WMBF-TV. “That’s why he got a $25,000 bond.”

Police said the judge will allow Price to commute from home to work during certain hours each day. Price is prohibited from contacting the victims and anyone else involved in the shooting.

South Carolina residents age 21 and older can get a gun permit, which since last year allows them to carry weapons openly or concealed. They must have eight hours of weapons training and pass a background check that includes fingerprinting.

The three Easter weekend mass shootings add to other acts of gun violence in recent days. Last week, a gunman opened fire on a New York subway car, injuring 10 people. A suspect was arrested the next day. Earlier this month, six people were killed and 12 others injured in Sacramento, California, during a shootout between rival gangs as bars closed in a busy downtown area just blocks from the state Capitol.

A week ago, a shooting inside a crowded nightclub in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, left a man and a woman dead and 10 people injured. And last month, 10 people were shot at a Dallas spring break party and several more were injured as they tried to escape gunfire.