{"id":690961,"date":"2026-06-08T04:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/690961\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T04:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:01:10","slug":"search-for-suspects-continues-after-12-people-shot-near-festival-in-toledo-ohio-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/690961\/","title":{"rendered":"Search for suspects continues after 12 people shot near festival in Toledo, Ohio | Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organizers of a festival in the historic center of Toledo, Ohio, have cancelled planned events on Sunday as police continue the search for at least two shooters who wounded<\/a> 12 people a day earlier.<\/p>\n

The Toledo police deputy chief, Joseph Heffernan, said the shooters were \u201cprobably shooting at each other\u201d when gunfire erupted just after 5.30pm near the Old West End festival, an annual gathering of live music and architectural home tours.<\/p>\n

A search for suspects was entering its second day on Sunday. But with no suspects in custody, law enforcement officials have urged festival goers to come forward with any photos or videos on their phones for possible leads.<\/p>\n

Two people are reported to be in critical condition, Heffernan said. He added that the ages of the victims ranged from 14 to 61, with most in their early 20s. There were several hundred people at the festival at the time.<\/p>\n

Authorities also said extra police officers had been assigned to the festival, and a large number of off-duty officers were working for the festival itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a shame when a few people, for whatever reasons going through their head, decide to disrupt something that has been a beloved community event for many, many, many years,\u201d Heffernan said.<\/p>\n

Festival organizers said in a statement posted online<\/a>: \u201cToo often we turn on the news and learn of a celebration somewhere that turns into a tragedy. Now, that news comes from our own neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are heartbroken about those that were injured at the Old West End Festival. Many people want to know how we proceed from such a dark place.\u201d<\/p>\n

After discussions with Toledo civic and police authorities, the organizer\u2019s statement added, \u201cWe feel that it would not be compassionate, responsible or possible to continue the festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video posted online showed attendees scrambling for cover as shots rang out and. Later, a video on X showed a young man ambling down the street with blood pouring from a wound in his side before sitting down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo,\u201d the Ohio<\/a> governor, Mike DeWine, said in a statement on Saturday. \u201cSummer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohio senator Jon Husted also took to social media to share a statement, calling the violence \u201csenseless\u201d. He also thanked law enforcement \u201cwho acted quickly to protect Ohioans and are working to locate the suspects and bring them to justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Toledo fire chief, Allison Armstrong, said it had been difficult to get victims to area hospitals because of closed roads and traffic from people leaving the festival.<\/p>\n

Counting the case in Toledo on Saturday, there had been more than 170 mass shootings in the US so far for the year, according to the Gun Violence Archive<\/a>. The nonpartisan archive defines mass shootings as shootings in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.<\/p>\n

The US\u2019s perennially high rates of mass shootings has prompted many to call on the federal government for more substantial gun control. But Congress has not implemented such restrictions over the years.<\/p>\n

Separately, a church in east Columbus canceled the remainder of its annual festival after fights prompted an early shutdown on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Fighting broke out at St Catharine Catholic Church\u2019s Funfest in the city at about 7pm, where about 500 to 800 teenagers had gathered, 10 WBNS reported. <\/a>Columbus police said there had been reports of gunshots, but no weapon had been recovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cViolence has no place in our community spaces but is unfortunately a potential that needs to be carefully considered and planned around when organizing large community events,\u201d Bexley mayor Ben Kessler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are controls that can be put into place to greatly reduce this risk, and we will not only be working to encourage their use at future FunFests \u2013 but also to again re-examine our own events to apply any lessons learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columbus division of police chief Elaine Bryant condemned what she called \u201cstreet takeovers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat will not be tolerated are street takeovers, reckless driving, disorderly behavior, vandalism, assaults, or any actions that endanger the safety of our residents and visitors,\u201d Bryant said in a statement. \u201cLawlessness will not be tolerated in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organizers of a festival in the historic center of Toledo, Ohio, have cancelled planned events on Sunday as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-690961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}