Shots Fired Into Crowd Kill Man, 4-Year-Old Girl: Police

A man and a 4-year-old girl were fatally shot Friday night at a party that was being held in a nearby parking lot in Akron, Ohio, according to police.

The Akron Police Department said that the shooting happened outside a house on Princeton Street around 9:15 p.m. in the Summit Lake neighborhood where one or more unknown suspects fired into the crowd, hitting the two victims who were later identified as 4-year-old Journei Tolbert and 40-year-old Johnny Gaiter, local news station WKYC reported.

Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett said during a news conference that officers arrived at a "chaotic scene" where they found the victims suffering from gunshot wounds, according to CNN.

Gaiter died Saturday morning after being transferred to the Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital due to his critical injuries, according to the local news station.

"Detectives are working to determine the circumstances and motive surrounding the shooting," police said in a statement, adding that no arrests have been made.

The shooting happened far away from demonstrations that broke out Friday night in response to the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker, a Black man who was killed by Akron police on June 27, according to WKYC.

"We're tired," said Pastor Bradley Reeves of Restoration Community Church about the deadly incident, according to CNN. "This has to stop...There's a baby here that won't see 5. Not only does the community need to calm down, but the police need to calm down, too."

Meanwhile, Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan said Friday during the news conference following the shooting that "there is a lot of heightened tension in the city right now."

Newsweek reached out to the Akron Police Department for comment.

Other Party Shootings

Last weekend, a juvenile boy was shot and killed, and another person was wounded at a birthday party that had a crowd of over 100 people in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Police said that the shooting was targeted after the victim was found dead in the bathroom. Some kids hid under cars after the gunshots rang out, while others ran towards the woods.

Another Chesterfield County shooting happened last month at a party, leaving one person dead and seven others injured after gunshots were fired into a crowd of nearly 50 to 100 people.

In addition, a shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, last month saw two people killed and two others injured at a birthday party at an apartment complex.