Multiple people have been shot near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, and police said a search for the suspects was ongoing following an outbreak of gunfire that sent people scrambling for cover.<\/p>\n
The Toledo Police Department said the shooting happened near the Old West End Festival, an annual gathering of live music and home tours in a historic district of the city. <\/p>\n
Officers on the scene found multiple people shot and “many victims” were taken to hospitals, the department said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Authorities did not immediately detail the extent of the injuries. The department said an active search was underway for those responsible.<\/p>\n
City council member Theresa Morris said there were at least eight victims from the shooting.<\/p>\n
“This tragedy is really weighing heavily on both the residents and those who visit and enjoy this festival year after year,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in a statement: “I am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo tonight. Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence.”<\/p>\n
Multiple videos posted to social media showed people running over the sound of gunshots and emergency officials tending to others who appeared wounded.<\/p>\n
Kevin Berry said he was sitting in the neighbourhood arboretum listening to live music with his friends when he heard a handful of gunshots ring out.<\/p>\n
“Everybody hit the deck,” he said.<\/p>\n
When he looked back up, he saw a gun being tossed to the ground less than 15m away from him. Police officers who were already on-site for the festival immediately responded to the scene.<\/p>\n
Berry, who has medical training and served in the US Navy, said he walked around the area looking for potential victims who might need help.<\/p>\n
He said he saw at least five people with gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n
“The folks who were hit were spread out around the arboretum area,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Old West End Festival is a two-day celebration in Toledo’s historic district that includes live music, food vendors, home tours and shopping.<\/p>\n
Berry described it as the “kick-off to Toledo’s summer festival season”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Multiple people have been shot near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, and police said a search for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-464801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}