'It was mass chaos': Chief deputy details Florida MLK Day shooting that left eight wounded
FORT PIERCE, FLORIDA: Eight people were injured in a shooting at Fort Pierce, Florida during the Martin Luther King Jr Day event on Monday night, January 16. A spokesperson for the St Lucie County Sheriff's Office said that a "disagreement of some type" between two groups of people caused the shooting to start around 5.20 pm near Ilous Ellis Park.
Quoting the Sheriff's Office, Fox News reported that the park was hosting an 'MLK Car Show & Family Fun Day' from noon till 6 pm, when the incident took place. The sheriff's office informed media that the status of one of the gunshot victims is critical. Four others were injured as they were trying to flee the area.
ALSO READ:
Videos posted on social media showed large crowds enjoying the event before gunshots pierced through the cheerful music, prompting people to run for cover. Eight people were hit by bullets, one of whom remains in critical condition. "It was mass chaos, as you can imagine, when shots rang out. There were 1,000-plus people here at the event," Chief Deputy Brian Hester said at a press conference. "And as the shots rang out, people were just running in all directions," he added.
Describing the chaotic scene, Hester said that people found cover anywhere they could. "There were people laying behind cars, laying behind anything they could lay behind," he said, adding, "It's kind of hard to tell who was a victim and who was just hiding at that point as our deputies did start to render aid to multiple people. There were people in the crowd that were rendering aid as well. And then there were some people that were loading people up in cars and taking them to the hospital as well."
At the moment, there is no suspect in custody, but according to Hester, the sheriff's office is pursuing a number of leads after receiving community tips, and detectives are searching the scene for any evidence. Hester believes that there were probably several shooters.