Dramatic surveillance footage captured the moment gunfire erupted in Forth Worth, Texas, hours after residents of the Como neighborhood celebrated an annual festival.
The mass shooting left three people dead and eight others wounded. A child was among the wounded.
Surveillance video from a business on the night of the shooting shows hundreds of people congregating together in the hours after ComoFest, an annual event celebrating the neighborhood on the night before the Fourth of July.
Though the surveillance video does not provide audio, it is clear when the gunfire breaks out, as instantly hundreds of the party-goers begin rushing away from the sound, stampeding off the streets toward safety.
Several people are left in a parking lot, crouching behind cars and waiting to see what develops.
It appears a second volley of gunfire breaks out as one point, as the few remaining individuals taking cover quickly flee the area a few moments after the first mass exodus.
Paul Willis, 18, and Cynthia Santos, 22, were both killed at the scene of the shooting, according to NBC5. The identity of the third victim killed in the shooting has not been released by police at the time of this report.
Police believe the shooting involved multiple shooters firing indiscriminately into the crowd. Forth Worth Police Department Captain Shawn Murray said the department was not sure how many suspects were involved in the attack. He also said police did not currently know the suspects' motives.
People cower in the Como neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas, as gunfire breaks out just before midnight on 3 July, 2023— (screengrab/NBC5)
This is the second shooting on the evening of ComoFest; during the 2021 celebration eight people were shot and wounded near a car wash in the neighbourhood.
The following day the city's Fourth of July parade traversed the same street where the shooting occurred.
Ka’Desha Weatherly, the mother of Mr Willis, spent the next day sitting in the spot where her son was killed, even as the parade marched down the street next to her. She told NBC5 she wasn't sure where else to go, and felt compelled to be where her son died.
“He was a beautiful young man,” Ms Weatherly told the Associated Press. “He did everything right. He did not deserve to die.”
The city's mayor, Mattie Parker, said that she was "devastated" by the news of the mass shooting.
“My heart breaks for the victims, their loved ones, and the entire Como community that works to build positivity and celebration in their community and our city,” she wrote in a Twitter statement.
