Six people – including a child – were shot during a carnival parade in Louisiana on Saturday, leading authorities to take one person into custody, according to multiple reports.
The mass shooting occurred near a courthouse in Clinton, Louisiana, during the town’s “Mardi Gras in the Country” event, local news outlet WBRZ reported. The local sheriff told the local news outlet that the parade was immediately shut down.
One person is in custody, officials told the outlet – and investigators are searching for a vehicle suspected to have been used for the shooting.
The East Feliciana parish sheriff’s office, which oversees Clinton, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.
WBRZ reported that the Louisiana state police has taken over the investigation. Streets near the courthouse were reportedly blocked by state troopers and officials with the sheriff’s office.
Clinton has a population of about 1,300 people. It is part of the metropolitan area surrounding Louisiana’s capital city, Baton Rouge.
At the time of the bloodshed reported in Clinton on Saturday, there had been at least 24 mass shootings in the US so far in the year, according to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive.
The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.
Constantly high rates of mass shootings in the US have led many to call on Congress to enact more meaningful gun control measures. But Congress over the years has been unwilling or unable to heed such calls.
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