Two dead, 18 injured in Ybor City, Florida, shooting
Two people were killed in a shooting Saturday night in the Tampa, Florida, neighborhood of Ybor City.
A Tampa Police Department release described the incident as "an altercation between two groups [that] escalated to gunfire."
One person was dead at the scene and another died after being transported to a hospital, according to police.
Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said at a Sunday morning press conference that one of the people involved in the shooting "turned himself in," and the department is searching for a second person. The person described has not been charged, according to a Tampa police spokesperson.
“I just ask that everybody look at the victims and realize what happened here and know that it’s unacceptable,” Bercaw said. “And if there’s any motivation for somebody to provide us a tip, let that be the motivation.”
Eighteen people were reported to be injured. Some of those injuries may have occurred in a crowd stampede, according to a Tampa Police spokesperson.
Police have not released the names of the two people killed.
Emmitt Wilson told the Associated Press that his 14-year-old son, Elijah, was killed. "It’s madness to me. I don’t even feel like I’m here right now,” Wilson told the Associated Press. “I hope the investigators do their job and find out who killed my son."
Tampa mayor calls for gun control
The shooting in Tampa comes after a mass shooting in Maine that reignited calls for gun control laws.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, a former police officer, echoed those calls in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
“Bad decisions made in a split second and the proliferation of readily available guns are responsible for these almost daily incidents. We can affect one half of this equation,” Castor said.