At a press conference, Tampa Police chief Lee Bercaw said that officers responded to the shooting in Tampa just before 3 am on the 1600 block of East 7th Avenue in the Ybor City area.

Bercaw said that the fight occurred in an area with several bars and clubs and there were large numbers of late night revelers in the area at the time.

 “It was a disturbance or a fight between two groups. And in this fight between two groups we had hundreds of innocent people involved that were in the way,” Bercaw said.

A video posted on social media showed people in Halloween costumes drinking and talking on the street when the shots were fired, creating a stampede. Some people toppled over metal tables and took cover behind them.

The police did not revealed details of the injuries suffered by the victims who were taken to the hospitals.

The Tampa Police chief also said that one suspect has turned himself in to police and investigators believe that there were at least two shooters involved.

The police are probing the reason for the fight between the two groups.

Bercaw said that officers were at the scene at the time of the shooting but none were injured.

“This morning, it’s tragic that families have to wake up and see on the news what happened here tonight,” Bercaw said. “We have to think about the families invovled and the victims that were involved. and our hearts go out to them.”

The police said that nearby businesses have offered to share their surveillance video. 

According to a report by WFLA citing a man Emmitt Wilson, his 14-year-old son was one of the victims who was killed in the incident.

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Updated: 29 Oct 2023, 05:46 PM IST