An attack on a crowded backyard party has left 4 dead and 6 wounded, all adult males, in Fresno California.
About 35 friends and family at the home were watching a football game in the backyard when an unknown number of gunmen opened fire into the crowd, said Michael Reed, a deputy chief of the Fresno Police Department. The authorities received reports of the shooting around 8 p.m. local time.
The number of assailants and their motive are unknown at this time and no arrests have been made. Police are looking for surveillance video from the neighborhood and witnesses to try and establish suspects and gather details.
Three of the victims were declared dead on the scene and the fourth died at the hospital. The six injured were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
This is the second high profile shooting in California in less than a week. The highschool shooting last week Thursday that left two students dead, two injured, and the suspect committing suicide with the .45 caliber handgun the 16 year old brought in his backpack made national headlines with its suddenness and no obvious motive.
California holds arguably the strictest gun control policies in the nation, but that legislation is ineffective in curbing motivated violence or preventing effective access to means. California’s violent crime rate was 16th in the nation in 2017 at 451:100,000 and above the national average of 394:100,000. 59% of those were aggravated assaults, 8% sexual assaults, and 1% homicides. Remember that the difference between aggravated assault and homicide is, mostly, surviving.
And even as I finish writing this, another shooting is being reported at an Oklahoma Walmart. Three dead reported. Motive and Suspect status unknown.
