Two men were killed and 35 people were injured in a shooting at a block party early on Sunday in Georgia, officials said.
Brett Walls, the coroner in Dooly County, Ga., said two men, ages 20 and 23, had been pronounced dead at the scene in Vienna, Ga., around 1:15 a.m.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said in a statement that 35 people were injured. It was not clear how many of the injuries were related to gunfire.
The victims were taken to multiple hospitals, officials said. Twenty-six people were taken to Crisp Regional Hospital in Cordele, Ga., about nine miles from the scene, the hospital said in a statement.
Two people required emergency surgery, two victims were taken to other facilities and “several patients have been admitted to the hospital for continued care,” the hospital said, adding that many patients had been treated and discharged.
A detailed account of the severity of the injuries was not immediately available.
A motive for the shooting, which happened on Pine Street, was not immediately known. No arrests had been made as of Sunday afternoon.
“I’ve been doing this for 42 years,” Sheriff Craig Peavy of the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office told reporters on Sunday. “I’ve had a lot of cases I’ve been on, a lot of bad situations, and I think by far this is the one that has caught me off guard.”
The sheriff said gunfire continued about a block away even as deputies responded to the scene.
Mr. Walls said the shooting happened as Dooly County High School celebrated its homecoming week, which began on Monday and ended on Saturday.
In a statement on Facebook, the high school said the block party was not a school-sponsored event but that the impact of the shooting “may reach many of our students, families and staff.”
“We are grateful for the compassion and support being demonstrated throughout our community, and those affected remain in our thoughts and prayers,” the statement said.
Mr. Walls said that a few communities during homecoming have large parties, adding that about 1,000 people had attended the block party.
Vienna, a city of about 4,000 residents, is about 56 miles south of Macon.
Deputies were on patrol at the block party when the gunfire broke out, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations said.
“This investigation is active and ongoing,” according to the bureau, which is helping the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office with the investigation.
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