Authorities said they were searching for a male suspect who pulled out a handgun and fired into a group of people Saturday night during the fight. No arrests were reported in the hours after the shooting, Police Sgt. Sammy Morris told The Associated Press.
“It was a large fight. Somebody in the crowd produced a handgun and fired several times,” Morris said, adding all four victims were hit by gunfire.
A 16-year-old boy had a gunshot wound to the head and a 20-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the neck, police said. A police statement added that a 14-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man also were hospitalized — each with a gunshot wound in the left leg. None of the four were identified by name.
Morris said the fighting began before 10 p.m. at an intersection near Luke Easter Park, the venue for the day’s festival and concert. It wasn’t immediately clear how long after Clinton or other musicians had performed that the shooting erupted — nor how many people were still in the area.
All four of the victims were taken to Cleveland’s MetroHealth Medical Center. A MetroHealth nurse supervisor contacted by AP said the hospital had no further medical updates early Sunday. The Cleveland Plain Dealer had reported earlier that the two most seriously wounded were in critical condition and the other two were stable.
It was not immediately clear how many people were involved in the fighting nor what prompted it, Morris said.
Police said first officers arrived at 9:57 p.m. Saturday to answer a call of shots fired and summoned emergency crews to help the wounded, Morris said. He added that officers soon after combed the area in a search for the suspect but couldn’t find the shooter.
The report said thousands of people had gathered earlier for the eighth annual Unity in the Park festival, which featured George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic as the headline act.