Several people killed in two mass shooting incidents in the US

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers talks to investigators at the scene where five people were shot and killed the night before, Saturday, April 29, 2023, in unincorporated San Jacinto County, Texas. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via AP)

At least eight people have been reported killed, including a child and teenagers, in two separate incidents in the US states of Texas and Pennsylvania, according to authorities.

The two shooting incidents are the latest in a series of mass shootings across the US. As of April 18, there have been at least 163 mass shootings recorded across the country, according to news reports.

In the first incident in Texas, five people including an 8-year-old child were killed in a shooting at a home in the city of Cleveland, ABC News reported on Saturday, citing local police and authorities.

The shooting took place late on Friday and the police were still looking for the suspect, the report added.

Officials from the San Jacinto County Sheriff's office received a call about harassment from Cleveland at around 11:31 p.m. local time but when they reached the scene they found several victims who had been shot, ABC reported.

The San Jacinto County Sheriff's office told the broadcaster that the suspect was a Mexican man who was intoxicated, armed and on the run.

The Cleveland Police Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment. The San Jacinto County Sheriff's office could not immediately be reached for a comment.

Police did not disclose the identity of the victims or their possible relationship to the suspect, but said that they were all from Honduras, the ABC report said.

The shootings all took place in one home, with four victims declared dead at the scene and the fifth declared dead after being taken to the hospital, the report added.

The youngest of those killed was 8 years old with two female victims found on top of two surviving children, the report said, citing authorities.

Home shooting in Philadelphia

In the second incident, three people were killed and one was wounded in a shooting at a home in northeast Philadelphia, authorities said.

Lt. John Stanford told reporters that officers called to the residence in the Lawncrest neighbourhood on Friday afternoon and found one person shot on the sidewalk, another on the porch and a third victim inside the home. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said another 16-year-old male victim arrived in a car at Jefferson Frankford Hospital. Stanford said at least two people were taken into custody and a gun was recovered from the vehicle.

Police said the victims were all between 15 and 20 years old.

WPVI-TV reported that officials from the School District of Philadelphia confirmed that at least two of the deceased victims were students in the school district, one in the eighth grade and the other in the 11th grade. No identities were immediately released.

Two weeks ago, more than two dozen shots were fired during a gun battle outside the Lawncrest Recreation Center, one bullet entering the window of a day care, WPVI-TV reported.

Stanford acknowledged frustration at the ongoing violence in the city, but said “we can’t lose hope, because if we lose hope then everybody in this city will lose hope."

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Source: TRT World