2 dead, 4 hurt in shooting after Mississippi parade

Two people have been killed and four injured following a shooting at the Mississippi Mardi Gras parade.

“I think I heard 12 shots fired”. Calling the incident “chaos”, Police Chief Tim Hendricks said he received a call about a fight just moments after law enforcement heard gunshots two blocks away from the parade.

Police said a black man was seen fleeing the area with a handgun, although no suspects had been into taken into custody by early Sunday evening and the circumstances of the shooting remained unclear.

Two men died at the scene, he said, and four others were wounded and treated at a hospital. “We thought it was fireworks at first”, one of the participants, Celeste Plaisance, told the Sun Herald.

Bates’ and Major’s bodies, covered in yellow sheets, lay near her mother’s steps later on.

She added that when she saw someone had been shot and people were running away, she ran into her mother’s house.

Crime scene tape is up on Davis Avenue near the intersection of Ladnier Street as the investigation continues. The victims’ hometowns are near Pass Christian on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.

Pass Christian police are investigating a shooting.

He said the shootings were unrelated to the parade that drew an estimated 50,000 people to the small Gulf town about 30 miles west of Biloxi.

Multiple units had responded as they were already at the parade when shots were fired, according to the station.