At least one person was dead and a dozen more wounded after gunfire erupted in the early hours of Saturday morning at a Halloween party in Oklahoma City, police said.
The shooting occurred at Patty’s Event Center, located in Country Park Shopping Center on the northwest corner of SW 59th and Agnew Ave., the Oklahoman reported.
It came after a “verbal altercation” between two groups at the Halloween bash, which eventually spilled out into the parking lot outside of the venue, said Sgt. Jon Skuta with the Oklahoma City Police Department.
“Those people then went back into the event center where the shooting continued,” Skuta told CNN.
When authorities arrived on the scene around 12:30 a.m., they found 13 people suffering from gunshot wounds. One of the victims was fatally struck and pronounced dead while two others were listed in critical condition as of Saturday afternoon.
Police told News 9 the number of injured include only people who were shot, not those who may have been hurt while trying to flee the gunfire.
Multiple people have since been detained in connection with the shooting, but authorities did not provide further details. The exact number of people in custody was unclear and their names have not been released.
Police have yet to identify any of the victims and most of their conditions were unknown on Saturday.
What exactly triggered tensions at the Halloween party was also unclear.
Capt. Valerie Littlejohn said officers are interviewing the detainees and hope it will help them “figure out what led up to this event.” She added that authorities still “have a lot of witnesses to talk to and people to interview” and asked that anyone with photos or videos from the event turn them over to investigators.
“We’re going to go through all of that,” Littlejohn told KOCO. “We’re going to work with our detectives to figure out what exactly occurred inside the building and outside the building.”
Authorities do not believe there is any ongoing threat to the public at this time.
With News Wire Services
