Three mass shootings dampen Easter weekend in US

Apr 18, 2022

Ben Burke Producer

By Ben Burke (Producer)

An uptick in mass shootings in the United States continued over Easter weekend, with three more shootings combining to leave two dead and at least 31 wounded. The video above show the scenes of two of those shootings. According to the police chief in Pittsburgh, where one of the shootings happened, the two who died were both children.

“It’s heartbreaking. I mean, here we are at Easter, and we have multiple families, two that won’t see a loved one,” Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott E. Schubert said Sunday. “How can you even have a holiday when your child was involved in something traumatic like this?”

The Pittsburgh shooting happened at a party at a short-term rental property. Hundreds of people with there, with the “vast majority” of them being underage. Investigators believe there were multiple shooters. Schubert said police were processing evidence at as many as eight separate crime scenes spanning a few blocks around the rental home.

Two other mass shootings unfolded in South Carolina, with one taking place at a mall in Columbia. Nine people were shot, and five were injured trying to flee the scene.

“We don’t believe this was random,” Columbia Police Chief William Holbrook said Saturday. “We believe that the individuals that were armed knew each other and there was some type of conflict that occurred. It resulted in gunfire.”

The other South Carolina shooting happened at a nightclub in Hampton County. At least nine people were wounded.

The Easter weekend mass shootings marked the latest in a string of major shootings in communities large and small in the U.S. In the past month, there have been at least nine major shootings, including one that killed six and injured 12 in Sacramento, and the one that wounded 10 at a New York subway station.

“This goes back to having too many guns, too many illegal guns on the streets; too many people who have access to these illegal weapons where they can be used in this,” Schubert said Sunday.

“Two lives lost and hundreds of lives are forever changed because we have yet to pass meaningful legislation to lessen the amount of guns in our streets or provide the much needed resources to communities desperately in need,” Maria Montaño, the press secretary for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, added.

Chief Scott E. Schubert, Pittsburgh Police Department: “It’s heartbreaking. I mean, here we are at Easter, and we have multiple families, two that won’t see a loved one. Others that are going to be — how can you even have a holiday when your child was involved in something traumatic like this?”

Maria Montaño, Press secretary for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey (who is isolated due to COVID-19, reading mayor’s statement): “Two lives lost, and hundreds of lives are forever changed because we have yet to pass meaningful legislation to lessen the amount of guns in our streets or provide the much needed resources to communities desperately in need. The time is now for us to move with a sense of urgency to bring justice to the victims and peace to our city.”

William “Skip” Holbrook, Chief, Columbia Police Department: “We don’t believe this was random. I think that’s very important in situations like this. We believe that the individuals that were armed knew each other and they were some type of conflict that occurred. It resulted in gunfire. This was not a situation where we had some random person show up at a mall to, you know, discharge a firearm and injure people.”