Seattle authorities reported that at least three people were killed while five others were left injured during four separate and unrelated shootings that occurred on Sunday.

In a release, the Seattle Police Department revealed that the four incidents took place within three hours. The first shooting was reported at around 1:48 a.m. and occurred outside of a bar in the Belltown neighborhood. An employee of the bar called authorities after a fight broke out inside the establishment where the involved individuals took the altercation outside.

Violent Shootings

Police that responded to the scene immediately heard gunshots and discovered a man with gunshot wounds on the street. Authorities declared the victim deceased after performing life-saving procedures.

A second shooting reported about two miles away from the first was called in at around 2:30 a.m. Police officers responded to Occidental Square, where they found two men with gunshot wounds. Officials immediately took one of the victims to the hospital while the other was declared dead at the scene. In the same area, three more victims were found and brought to hospitals, one of whom later died due to his injuries, CNN reported.

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At a hospital in Bellevue outside Seattle, a woman who was suffering from a gunshot wound to her stomach arrived at around 3:30 a.m. The victim said that a suspect shot her in Seattle as investigators and police try to locate the criminal of the crime which was reportedly done at around 1:40 a.m. The crime reportedly happened in the Chinatown-International District found two miles from the second shooting.

The fourth incident took place at around 4:40 a.m. with witnesses reporting gunshots at Cal Anderson Park. Medical personnel brought in a man with gunshot wounds to the Harborview Medical Center who said he was shot after playing a basketball game.

Investigators said they were looking into the separate incidents as Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan responded by saying the gun violence has existed since before the pandemic. He also announced a $10 million fund last week that would support violence prevention and a regional pilot program to address the surge of gun violence, King5 reported.

Surge of Gun Violence

Durkan noted that the United States was experiencing an increase in violent crimes with Seattle experiencing one of its worst mornings of violence on Sunday. He also noted that communities of color were the most severely impacted areas by the crimes.

In the past week, at least 915 shootings in the United States led to the death of 430 Americans and at least 1,007 injured. The incidents were recorded between July 17 and July 23, which translated to about one shooting every 12 minutes.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic last year, authorities reported more than 43,000 gun-crime-related deaths in the country. The statistics caused 2020 to be named the deadliest year for shooting-related incidents in at least two decades. The current numbers this year worry officials that it could be even deadlier than last year, Slate reported.

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