by Gunfire in Baltimore that killed a man and wounded two other adults Saturday night was part of a “mass-casualty incident,” the city’s top police chief said.
One person was detained for questioning and police are still trying to determine whether the person will be classified as a suspect or a victim, authorities said at a press conference on Saturday evening.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison described a chaotic scene in the city’s Upton community where ShotSpotter sensors alerted police to gunfire at 6:39 p.m.
He said it appeared a gunman or possibly more than one armed suspect opened fire, hit a 43-year-old man standing outside, who was pronounced dead after arriving at a hospital, punched another man, 65, in the arm and injured a motorist in a moving vehicle nearby, Harrison said.
“We are here again with yet another mass casualty incident,” he said.
The vehicle, which was also carrying children aged 2 and 3, hit a pole and came to a stop, the commissioner said. The 23-year-old woman behind the wheel was stabilized at a hospital after authorities initially said her condition was critical, according to an overnight statement from the Baltimore Police Department.
According to the statement, the children suffered head injuries and lacerations in the car accident. The 3-year-old was injured in the collision and has been stabilized in a hospital, police said. The 2-year-old, also injured in the accident, was stabilized in critical condition, they said.
Police initially thought the 2-year-old had been hit by gunshots to the face, but at night they said the toddler was only injured in the vehicle accident.
In their overnight statement, the Baltimore Police Department said it appeared the vehicle crashed “when the driver was shot.”
“We think at some point it happened that a gunman or several gunmen opened fire,” Harrison said earlier in the evening. “We don’t know if the intended target was the people in the vehicle or the people standing on the sidewalk.”
The reason behind the shooting was still unknown. “We see it consistently and we know it’s about nothing,” said Mayor Brandon Scott.
Police pleaded with potential friends, family and witnesses with facts about the attack to come forward.
“It’s time we stopped behaving like this,” Scott said at the press conference. “We can get better. It’s up to us. This isn’t up to anyone else. It’s not up to the police to make us better for ourselves. We can do that.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
