Early on Sunday morning, a “fight between two groups” broke out in the street outside of a Halloween celebration, resulting in two people being fatally shot and 18 others injured, police shared.
Tampa Bay Police Chief Lee Bercaw shared in a press conference on Sunday morning that officers were present when the incident happened in the city’s Ybor City neighborhood just before 3 a.m.
“People were out on Saturday night. It’s three o’clock, the bars let out, there’s hundreds in the street,” Bercaw said.
After the fight began, shots quickly followed, and police shared that they currently believe at least two shooters were involved.
The extent of the injuries of the 18 people hurt in the scuffle was not immediately made clear.
Bercaw shared that investigators are aware of a “disturbance or issue between the two groups” present outside the Halloween celebration.
So far, one male, who police did not identify but believe was involved in the incident, “turned himself in, and detectives are interviewing him now.”
Anyone with video footage of the incident is being asked to turn it into the police department to aid in the investigation.
“This is a very complicated scene, but what we know, at this point, it was a disturbance or a fight between two groups,” Bercaw said, adding that “in this fight between two groups, we had hundreds of innocent people involved that were in the way.”
The investigation remains ongoing at this point, and Bercaw said that they will bring those who are responsible “to justice, but we need the cooperation of the community for that, and that is our ask.”
“It is tragic what happened here. That families have to wake up and see on the news what happened here tonight,” Bercaw said.