Eight people were shot at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day car show in Fort Pierce, Florida, and one victim is in critical condition, according to multiple reports.
The incident took place at an “MLK Car Show & Family Fun Day” event held from noon to 6:00 p.m. on Monday and attended by over 1,000 people. At approximately 5:20 p.m., gunfire broke out after a disagreement between two groups of people, according to NBC 6 South Florida.
Two sheriff’s deputies, who were already at the event, responded immediately to the gunfire, local outlet WPBF reported. The deputies provided emergency aid to the victims but were unable to identify who fired the shots, according to the outlet.
DEVELOPING. There has been reports of a shooting during a MLK event at lllouis Ellis Park in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Large police presence next to Ave. M and 13th St. in Fort Pierce. St. Lucie Sheriff says there was a shooting & multiple people have been shot.
@police_frequency pic.twitter.com/wm6GBJi13H
— Chris Nelson 🇺🇸 🏝 (@ReOpenChris) January 17, 2023
People at the event also offered aid to the victims, and some transported wounded victims to the hospital. Four other attendees, including a child, suffered non-gunshot wounds as they fled the scene, WPBF reported.
Videos on social media show a large crowd breaking out into chaos as shots could be heard in the distance. One woman could be seen fleeing with a baby and running for cover. (RELATED: FBI Tries To Honor MLK, Gets Dragged On Twitter)
“Multiple people were shot. It sounds like, from our initial investigation here on scene, there was a disagreement of some sort between two parties, and unfortunately, they chose to resolve that with guns,” said St. Lucie County Chief Deputy Brian Hester, according to WPBF.
“It’s really sad in a celebration of someone who represented peace and equality that a disagreement results in a use of guns and violence to solve that disagreement, and that’s what’s really sad to me about what happened here,” Hester added. “And then so many innocent people who were injured or hurt and were not part of the disagreement as well.”
No suspects are in custody, and the shooting remains under investigation. The sheriff’s office is following several leads throughout the Fort Pierce area.