Often, when we see a mass shooting of some sort in a residential area that involves a number of teens or other younger people, it’s in the middle of the night. That tends to suggest that these aren’t people who have parents with any degree of control. That can hint that at least some of the people there were involved in illegal activity, which might have motivated the shooting.
On Tuesday evening, though, a shooting in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, happened at 5:30 in the afternoon.
Three people are dead and three others are injured after a mass shooting in Spotsylvania County, according to police.
The shooting happened in the area of Olde Greenwich Circle, in a town house complex, around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Three of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while the three others were rushed to an area hospital. The Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office said there could be more than six victims.
Crime Insider sources say some of the victims are teenagers.
So far, there have been no arrests, but police are investigating.
What we do know, however, is that while this might not have been in the wee hours of the morning, it clearly looks like someone trying to settle a score.
Maj. Elizabeth Scott, spokesperson for the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office, said during a press conference that the shooter has not been brought into custody, and the shooting may have been committed by more than one person.
“There’s dozens upon dozens of officers out actively looking for suspects and preserving the crime scene,” Scott said.
7News reporter Lianna Golden told WTOP that witnesses on the scene described the gunshots sounding “like a machine gun,” and that they had seen young men walking down the street with “guns in their hands.”
Officials urged people to avoid the area and those near the scene to stay indoors while authorities investigate.
The phrase “like a machine gun” suggests a full-auto switch was probably involved, which means that these weren’t your garden-variety mass murderers or anything. No, this sounds like gang members who knew where to get such a device–one illegal at the federal level–and waltzed on up to settle a beef.
While Virginia doesn’t have the most gun control laws on the planet, it’s still got plenty of them. None of them stopped this attack from happening.
As it stands, there’s a lot we don’t know, even this many hours after the shooting took place. Part of that is because this wasn’t a mass shooting where someone is just trying to kill as many people as possible, potentially hoping to go down in a hail of bullets or by their own hand as the police approach.
These were people who opened fire, hit a bunch of people, and took off.
That means they have to identify them, arrest them, and then we might figure out just what the heck was going on here.
Until then, three people are dead and three others are injured. We don’t know how bad or the ages of those impacted, much less their names. Hopefully, the three wounded individuals will make a full recovery.
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