Shreveport shooting death toll rises as another victim dies in hospital

Authorities confirmed Wednesday that another victim of the Fourth of July celebration shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, succumbed to gunshot injuries, taking the death toll to four.

Police are yet to ascertain the motive of the Shreveport shooting and to determine how the armed assailants were involved.

According to Shreveport Police Lt. Van Ray, two bodies were found when authorities arrived and a third person died at a hospital.

He said the condition of the six who were wounded and brought to hospitals was unknown.

Van Ray noted that officers had a tough time reaching the victims because there were so many vehicles on-scene belonging to people attending the festivities, further adding that “there was still an enormous amount of people at the scene when officers got there.”

Local Councilwoman Tabatha Taylor also expressed about the Shreveport shooting telling reporters that she was "livid" and the shooting was "catastrophic, at best."

"Now we are the victim of a mass shooting in our community simply because individuals decided to come in and disrupt a good time that individuals were having," she said.

"A family event that has gone on for years in our community has been disrupted by gunfire because somebody decided to pull their guns and do this. Why, why? My other choice words cannot be articulated on camera."

Officials are hoping to get a drone in the air to continue searching for other possible victims, Taylor said.

Among the seven people who were shot and survived, one was in critical condition and six suffered non-life-threatening wounds, according to Shreveport police spokesperson Sgt. Angie Willhite.

“It’s believed that multiple males engaged in an exchange of gunfire,” Smith said.

It’s not clear what led up to the gunfire, which shattered a “family and community event” that had safely taken place for more than a decade, Taylor said.

There have been no arrests and the police have not yet identified the shooters.

Mass shootings on Fourth July celebrations

In a separate shooting, a 14-year-old boy was killed and injured six others were injured at a Salisbury block party within 24 hours after a gun violence incident in Texas claimed the lives of at least three people leaving multiple injured.

The shooting also come at around the same time when west of Salisbury also witnessed a drive-by shooting in which nine people were wounded including a 9-year-old.

At least 10 people were killed and 38 injured in three mass shooting incidents in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Fort Worth during the July 4 holiday, authorities said, causing US President Joe Biden to reiterate lawmakers to act on firearms legislation to save innocent lives.

There have been over 340 mass shootings in the country so far in 2023, according to data collected by the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.

In Fort Worth shooting, three lives were claimed with eight injured after a local festival to mark the US Independence Day holiday, according to the police Tuesday.

Another shooting in Philadelphia Monday evening left five dead and two wounded, including a 2-year-old boy and 13-year-old boy, both of whom were shot in the legs when a gunman in body armour carrying an AR-15 went on a killing spree on strangers, said local police.