Texas [US] : At least five people, including an 8-year-old child, were fatally shot in Texas’ Cleveland after the gunman’s neighbour asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said Saturday, according to CNN.
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said that the gunman, who was apparently shooting a rifle in his yard, was asked by his neighbours to stop firing as a baby was trying to sleep. The suspect then opened fire on the neighbours, Capers said. The sheriff also stated that the authorities found the victims Friday night after receiving a harassment report at about 11:30 pm local time, the sheriff said.
“The victims, they came over to the fence said, ‘Hey, could you mind not shooting out in the yard. We have a young baby that is trying to go sleep,’” CNN quoted Capers saying.
The states are moving in polar opposite directions on guns. The suspect, who had been drinking, responded, “I’ll do what I want to in my front yard.”
A doorbell camera at the home of the victims at some point captured the suspect approaching with his rifle, Capers said.
“They were trying to take care of them babies and keep them babies alive,” Capers said of the victims.
The gun violence culture has become very common in the US. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 174 mass shootings in the country so far, reported CNN.
Both CNN and the archive define a “mass shooting” as a shooting that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter.
“It’s not just at banks, schools, supermarkets, or churches where Americans fear becoming victims of a mass shooting,” Kris Brown, president of Brady, a gun violence prevention organisation, said in a statement.
“People in this country are being gunned down with assault weapons in their own homes, and that is the horrifying reality we will continue to live under until our norms and policies change,” she added.
