BATON ROUGE, La. — A dozen people were injured in a Baton Rouge nightclub shooting, authorities in Louisiana said Sunday.
Considered one of the victims is in critical condition, police said. No arrests have been made, but police consider the early morning attack was “targeted.”
“This was not a random act of violence, based on the preliminary investigating efforts,” Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. “We consider that this was a targeted event, where someone was specifically targeted and others were injured in that process.”
Three Baton Rouge law enforcement officials were nearby when the shots were fired around 1:30 a.m. and responded to the Dior Bar & Lounge. They administered life-saving aid until emergency medical technicians arrived.
“We consider their immediate response prevented further injuries,” Paul said.
Although police have some leads, Paul urged anyone else with details about shooting to come back forward.
“There may be someone who knows something — do the best thing. You’ll be able to save the subsequent incident since it is apparent that this person has total disregard for all times,” Paul said.
Police didn’t say how lots of the people shot were targeted. Paul declined to comment on what number of shooters opened fire.
“I do understand the interest and everybody wanting information, but remember … we’ve to get this right,” Paul said in regards to the ongoing investigation. “And sometimes, getting it right means I can’t give information immediately.”
Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome — who met with mayors of other major U.S. cities in Washington, DC, last week, to debate the difficulty of crime — called the shooting “a senseless act of violence that is not going to go unchecked.”
“We is not going to stop our work until everyone feels protected and individuals now not turn to guns to resolve their differences,” Broome tweeted.
Although the variety of homicides in Baton Rouge decreased last yr from 2021, Louisiana’s capital city has been tormented by gun violence. In October, an early-morning shooting near Southern University’s campus in Baton Rouge left nine people injured.
