Eight dead, Many injured in Halloween weekend violence across US

Noman Sabit: At least Eight people were killed and dozens of others were injured in shootings in half a dozen cities across the country over the Halloween weekend.

Four people are dead and 15 others were injured following a handful of shootings in Dallas’ Deep Ellum neighborhood, a center of music, restaurants and nightlife in the city, law enforcement said.

Police in college towns like Fayetteville, Arkansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Newark, Delaware, and Bloomington, Illinois, also reported shootings in their nightlife districts this weekend.

Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said investigators were still trying to determine if the shootings Saturday night over the span of about an hour and 15 minutes were related. Three separate shootings occurred, and it wasn't immediately known why they started. Comeaux said some arrests were made but he didn’t specify how many or what charges were involved.

“This is a really big scene. It's spread out,” Comeaux said. “We are interviewing some individuals right now that we have arrested, still trying to figure out exactly how it ties into all the shootings out here.” The department had increased police presence in the district before the shootings. No police officers were injured. One shooting happened after an HBCU football game

In Birmingham, Alabama, one person was killed and eight others were wounded in a mass shooting just outside Legion Field after the annual ‘Magic City Classic’ football game on Saturday night, police said.

Michael Pickett, chief of the Birmingham Police Department, said most spectators and families had left the stadium property after the game, but the shooting happened nearby, where vendors were set up along Graymont Avenue. He said he was “very grateful that more people weren’t injured.” The circumstances of the shooting were unclear.

Police spokesperson De'Rell Freeman said one person had been detained and transported to police headquarters for questioning, and “multiple weapons” had been found and secured.

Alabama State and Alabama A&M are historically Black universities and archrivals whose annual contest has been played for more than 100 years. Nearly 70,000 fans attended Saturday's game, won by Alabama A&M 31-28. The event draws some of the largest crowds in the country for games played in their college football division. The Magic City Classic has such a deep history that Alabama State coach Eddie Robinson Jr., a former NFL linebacker and alumnus of the school, proposed creating a Hall of Fame for the game.

In Newark, Delaware, six people were shot late Saturday near the University of Delaware campus, Newark police Lt. Greg D’Elia said. All six were transported to hospitals for treatment, police said early Sunday. No updates on their condition were available as of Sunday afternoon. A university spokesperson said they would provide updates on the investigation online as they become available.

Video shared on social media showed people running for safety from the scene. One stretch of the city's Main Street was closed for several hours after the shooting, police said.

A shooting early Sunday in Bloomington, Illinois, left a 19-year-old woman dead and another woman in critical condition. Six others had injuries that were not life-threatening, but it was unclear from a statement by the city's police department and McLean County Coroner’s Office if those people had gunshot wounds. The shooting happened near the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. Bloomington is about 135 miles (217 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

Two shootings in Arkansas

A shooting early Sunday near a strip mall southwest of Little Rock, Arkansas, left one man dead and “several more” injured, city police said on Facebook. Police didn't specify the exact number of injured.

And in Fayetteville, Arkansas, six people were taken to hospitals with gunshot wounds from a shooting that happened early Sunday. No arrests have been made, police said in a news release. A preliminary investigation indicates an altercation preceded the shooting.

Halloween stores were the scene of two attacks

On Friday, two people were killed in separate shootings at Spirit Halloween stores in California and Michigan.

Police said a shooting inside a store at an indoor shopping mall in Fairfield, California was a targeted attack. Family members told police that the 31-year-old woman who died was pregnant. Six other people were wounded, police said.

In Madison Heights, Michigan, just north of Detroit, a 21-year-old man was fatally shot Friday afternoon at a Spirit Halloween. Another man who was assaulted by bystanders as officers took him into custody was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.

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