Police are searching for the perpetrator of a shooting that left at least five students injured in a park in the US state of Maryland. The events occurred around three in the afternoon this Friday (10:00 p.m. in Spain) during a party that had been called through social networks and in which between five and six hundred young people participated. One of the victims, between 16 and 18 years old, is in critical condition.
The shooting occurred in Greenbelt, a small city of 21,000 inhabitants who knew that something serious was happening when they heard several shots in a row and the screams of students, all of them high school students, who had gathered in Schrom Hills Park. The students came from two local high schools and fulfilled the tradition of skipping classes on the last day of school to celebrate a party, consisting of a massive battle with water guns.
The farewell resulted, however, in a tragedy for reasons that are still unknown this Saturday. Someone brought in a real gun. The Police received several alarm calls from the same park and immediately alerted around twenty officers who were on duty in the surrounding area. The call had been made through the networks and the sheriff's office had deployed the operation to control the influx of people.
The agents ran into the park as they heard the sound of weapons. They were met by a stampede of panicked young people running in all directions for cover. Many of them headed towards a nearby road in order to stop traffic and get into the cars of those passing by to flee. «The officers began to try to control the traffic and also the crowd. As those officers walked toward the park, they heard the sound of gunshots. At that time they thought there were eight to ten shots,” reported local Police Chief Richard Bowers.
Five young people, two of them minors, were quickly evacuated to the hospital after receiving first aid from the patrol officers themselves. One of the victims is in critical condition due to gunshot wounds and the rest remain in stable condition. Investigators are questioning the students this Saturday to try to find out how the events occurred and discover the motive. It is certain that there was a shooter, but the agents do not rule out that he had the collaboration of “other” accomplices. Apparently, the aggressor would have taken advantage of the mass flight of the students to infiltrate them and disappear from the scene of the crime.
Neighbors have already asked security forces to take extraordinary measures to prevent attacks like the one this Friday, in a country deeply concerned about the succession of indiscriminate shootings and the lack of control over the possession of firearms. “This is a tragic, horrible and senseless act,” lamented the Police Chief, after highlighting that the students were only “looking to have a good time in the local park” with the aim of celebrating an academic tradition. According to Bowers, “there is absolutely no reason why this happened. “It is chronic in our society and we have to do something to stop it.”
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