A holiday tree lighting ceremony in North Carolina was interrupted by gunfire Friday, leaving four injured.
Three people, including two shooters, are in critical condition.
Shots broke out at the ceremony in Concord, 25 miles northeast of Charlotte, at around 7:30 p.m., city officials said.
The four people injured, city officials said in an update Saturday, are a 17-year-old who was released, another unnamed 17-year-old in critical condition and the two shooting suspects, who know each other.
“The shooting that occurred … was not a random act of violence directed at the public,” said city officials, who didn’t specify the circumstances.
“We had a line of probably 250-300 people, and then all of a sudden, you heard what you thought was fireworks, but it’s about 40 minutes early for the fireworks. And then all panic broke loose. Everybody scattered, everybody started running, people were falling down,” Brett Ford, a balloon artist who was a vendor at the lighting ceremony, told Charlotte’s WCNC-TV.
The two suspects, both hospitalized, are an unnamed juvenile whose age city officials did not disclose and city resident Nasir Ahmad Bostic, 18. He will be served a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting serious injury with intent to kill and inciting a riot once he gets out of the hospital.
For the other suspect, the Concord Police Department has filed petitions through the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill, two counts of discharging a gun into an occupied property causing serious injury and inciting a riot.
A third person, Keyvyonn Rayshaund Bostic, 17, was uninjured and was arrested after the incident.
City officials said he’s facing charges as an adult of being an accessory to a crime after the fact and inciting a riot. They did not say what, if any, relation he has to the elder Mr. Bostic or how he purportedly acted as an accessory or incited a riot.
The city still went ahead with its 97th annual Christmas parade Saturday.
“We are a resilient community and will not let the senseless actions of a few individuals steal another tradition from us. Some families may choose to stay home and we understand and respect their decision. We also know that many find comfort, harmony, and healing in community and our parade has provided that for our City for nearly a century,” Concord officials said in a statement Saturday.
