Two teenagers were killed and four others wounded in a shooting at a party in central Missouri early Sunday morning.
Those who suffered fatalities were 16 and 17 years old, police said. They were not identified further. No suspects have been arrested.
A large group of people had gathered for a party at a vacant house in Columbia, according to the Boone County Sheriff’s Office. Cops were called to the scene just before 1 a.m.
“A verbal disturbance broke out between two opposing groups,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook. “This verbal altercation then led to shots being fired.”
The four wounded teenagers suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. They were between the ages of 16 and 19.
The shooting in Columbia was the latest in an ever-growing number of shootings at parties throughout the U.S. From Alabama to Massachusetts and Arizona to California, young people have been gunned down at celebrations nationwide.
Since four people were killed and 32 others wounded in a shooting at a 16th birthday party in Alabama on April 15, hardly a weekend has passed without a mass shooting at a celebration. The next weekend, nine teens were shot at a prom after-party in east Texas.
The weekend after that, one person was killed and five others wounded at a house party near Boston, while two teens were killed and four wounded at a party in Mississippi.
The Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people killed or wounded by gunfire, has recorded 275 such events in 2023.
The year’s deadliest shooting so far happened Jan. 21 at a dance hall in Monterey Park, Calif., where 11 people were killed and nine others wounded while celebrating Lunar New Year.