At least 6 hurt in SF street shootout after weekend of gun violence across the US
There were several mass shootings across the county over the weekend, including two in California.
At least six people were hurt as two people in cars chased each other and opened fire on the streets of San Francisco on Sunday, following a weekend of mass shootings and gun violence across the U.S.
Officials said two girls, 10 and 16, were among the victims of the car-to-car shooting near the Embarcadero on Sunday evening. The girls were walking their bikes across the street when they were hit by the cars that were recklessly chasing each other and exchanging gunfire.
Two other people were shot in the exchange and three others were hit by glass shards from the errant gunfire.
"The parking garage across the street, it sounded like fireworks went off and then people started running and I was like 'That's just fireworks, it scared them a little bit'," said tourist Cindy Jones. "But then the fear on their faces and then somebody ran through and said 'He's coming, shoot her.'
Police have not yet made any arrests and don't believe the shooting was random.
This came after eight people were shot overnight Friday at a pool party in Carson. Two people were left in critical condition in that shooting.
The shooting happened on East Abila Street. A 16-year-old girl who was shot in the arm told investigators a fight broke out in the street and led to gunfire.
Similar instances of gun violence and mass shootings occurred in other parts of the country over the weekend.
A shooting in Willowbrook, Illinois at a Juneteenth celebration left at least 20 people injured. Another happened in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, killing at least one juvenile and leaving nine others injured
Others happened in Washington state, central Pennsylvania and Baltimore.
The shootings follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic..
"There's no question there's been a spike in violence," said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. "Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are played out with firearms, not with fists."
Researchers disagree over the cause of the increase. Theories include the possibility that violence is driven by the prevalence of guns in America, or by less aggressive police tactics or a decline in prosecutions for misdemeanor weapon offenses, Nagin said.
As of Sunday evening, none of the weekend events fit the definition of a mass killing, because fewer than four people died at each location. The figure does not include the shooter. However, the number of injured in most of the cases matches the widely accepted definition for mass shootings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
