Police said they arrested one suspect, a 19-year-old man who
knew one of the victims and shot at him amid the crowd that had
just emerged from the Huguenot High School's commencement
ceremony inside a theater on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth
University.
The suspect was likely to be charged with two counts of
second-degree murder in addition to other offenses, interim
Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards told a press conference.
Edwards called the shooter's behavior "disgusting and cowardly,"
since his dispute appeared to be with just one person.
"When you have a crowd like this, innocent people are going to
be caught up in the mayhem, and that's what happened today. "
Edwards said. "Obviously, this should have been a safe
space...It's just incredibly tragic that someone decided to
bring a gun to this incident and rain terror on our community."
The United States has grown accustomed to mass shootings in
public places such as schools, shopping centers and churches.
The mass shooting was the country's 279th in the first 157 days
of 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive, using the
definition of four or more people are shot or killed in a single
incident, not including the shooter.
The deceased were men aged 18 and 36, Edwards said. He did not
confirm a WWBT television news report that the victims were
father and son.
Among the wounded, a 31-year-old man suffered life-threatening
injuries and four other males aged 14, 32, 55 and 58 were
expected to survive, Edwards said.
In addition, a 9-year-old girl was struck by a car in the chaos
that ensued, and multiple other people were injured in falls or
suffered from anxiety, Edwards said.
The suspect fled the scene on foot and was captured in
possession of four handguns, three of which may have been fired,
he said, stressing that it was too early in the investigation to
be certain.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Steve Gorman; Editing by Tom
Hogue and Lincoln Feast)
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