(Reuters) – Ten people were shot early Sunday at a nightclub in Greenville, South Carolina, in an outbreak of alleged gang-related violence that killed two people and seriously injured two others, police said.
Police believe more than one shooter fled the chaotic scene at the Lavish Lounge club before officers arrived. A large crowd had come to the establishment for “some kind of Fourth of July concert,” Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said at a press conference early in the morning.
Two sheriff’s deputies were passing the club shortly before 2 a.m. and heard gunshots and saw a commotion in a crowd of about 200 people, Lewis said.
They called for emergency and backup services and entered the club, trying to evacuate people and see if it was still an active shooting, but apparently the shooter or shooters fled, Lewis said.
Authorities identified the deceased as Mykala Bell, 23, of Greenville and Clarence Johnson, 51, of Duncan. The Greenville News reported that Johnson was a security guard at the club.
There was still no detailed information on the injured or suspected officials in Greenville as of noon Sunday. But Lewis told reporters that police were looking for “known gang members,” and that the incident was “likely gang related.”
There is no active threat to the public, police said.
Some of the wounded were taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital by people at the scene, others by ambulances, Lewis said.
The Greenville News reported that there was an earlier shooting early Saturday morning at a club next to the Lavish Lounge. Police were investigating a possible connection, the newspaper said.
Rich McKay’s report in Atlanta; Editing by Tom Brown
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