(CNN) — Three people were killed and eight others injured by gunfire in Mississippi at a party to celebrate a school’s football victory early Saturday, according to the local sheriff.
Two 19-year-olds and a 25-year-old were killed in the incident, which involved at least two shooters, The Associated Press reported. It said those injured had been airlifted to a hospital.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie March confirmed to CNN the shooting took place on a trail outside Lexington early Saturday morning. Emergency services had received a call about 12:30 am ET, Marsh said, and arrived in less than 15 minutes.
A chaotic scene greeted them, he said. “Chaos. People running, people crying, people, you know, it was chaos because of the large number of people that were there.”
There have been at least 422 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one that injures or kills four or more people, not including the shooter.
Between 200 and 300 people attended the party, which followed a football game at the Holmes County Consolidated School’s homecoming celebration, the AP reported.
“Three or four hours the game was over with and the people decided to go out there to the trail ride and I guess to have a party because they won,” he said. “The school had nothing to do with it at all. They didn’t put it on, they didn’t participate in it – anything.”
Marsh said that, as far as he knew, the football players themselves were not present and the cause of the shooting was unclear.
“We’re asking questions, but everyone’s saying they didn’t see an incident or squabble or anything,” March said. “We’re trying to find a motive ourselves.”
Joe Johnson, a co-owner of the land where the party was taking place, told CNN affiliate WAPTthe event was due to finish soon after the shots began.
“We had 30 minutes to go, and I was about to comment, you know, ‘It won’t be long,’ and that’s when I heard the shots going off,” he told WAPT.
Johnson said the shots were repeated and sounded “like a machine gun.”
Events held at the field had security, which had previously led to weapons being confiscated, he said, but this time they got through.
“You’ve got so much innocent blood that’s being shed, that’s what hurts me,” he said. “I’m an ordained minister and I’d just like to be able to talk to our young people and tell them, you know, to, to love one another.”
Johnson said his nephew was among those injured and his sons had also been present: “It was just the goodness of God that they didn’t get shot up.”
The incident marks the second weekend in a row there has been a mass shooting following homecoming festivities.
One man was killed and another nine injured in a shooting near Tennessee State University in Nashville on October 12 after that school’s homecoming celebration, though police said it was “kind of a sidebar” celebration and not a reflection on the university.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
