At least two gunmen opened fire into a crowd of several hundred people celebrating a school’s homecoming football victory at an outdoor gathering in central Mississippi on Friday just after midnight, leaving three people dead and eight others wounded.
The shooting took place at around 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 19 at a property in Holmes County, about five miles outside of Lexington, according to Holmes County Sheriff Willie March.
“It was chaos, to tell you the truth,” March said in a phone interview. “The shooting just started and people started running.”
The sheriff said the gunfire erupted after a fight between some of the men at the celebration, which followed a football game several hours earlier at the Holmes County Consolidated School’s homecoming event. After the game, scores of young people headed to the property to celebrate the win, with anywhere from 200 to 300 people there when the shots rang out.
March said it was not clear what caused the altercation, adding that shootings involving young men have been an intermittent issue in the county, which has a population of nearly 16,000. The sheriff said some of the prior shooting incidents stemmed from interpersonal disputes.
“It’s hard to see what they are fighting over. I don’t think they are fighting over turf or drugs,” March said. “These are young men walking around with weapons. I wish I had an answer.”
Two of the victims killed in the incident were 19 years old, while the third was 25. The injured were airlifted to local hospitals for treatment.
Johnson added that his nephew was among those injured in the shooting.
“My sons were there, and it’s just the goodness of God they didn’t get shot up, my nephew’s in the hospital now,” he said.
The sheriff said no suspects have been identified so far. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is assisting with the ongoing investigation into the shooting.
Mississippi has the second-highest rate of firearm-involved homicides in the United States, behind Louisiana.
