Milwaukee erupted in gunfire Friday night, with five separate shootings that left three people dead and 24 wounded in the lakeside city of less than 600,000.
Two of the incidents took place near Fiserv Forum, where the Bucks hosted the Celtics in an NBA playoff game.
Seventeen people were wounded during a frantic shootout after the game in Milwaukee’s Water Street Bar District, a few blocks east of the arena.
Ten people were taken into custody and nine guns were seized, according to the Milwaukee police. The victims are between the ages of 15 and 47 and are all expected to survive, Fox 6 Milwaukee reported.
The incident came just two hours after another incident in which three people were shot during the final minutes of the game, also near Fiserv Forum.
Video of the earlier incident shows panicked people screaming and running for their lives.
“Everybody started running,” witness Brittany Bergstrom told Fox 6. “There was a stampede, people running over the shrubs, hats shoes on the ground, drinks spilled everywhere.”
The night of violence came amid an ongoing crisis of shootings across the country, and as the soft-on-crime policies have sparked outrage. Milwaukee has seen a 40% leap in homicides since the start of the year.
The Deer District has been “battered” by gun violence this year, including two homicides, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
“Should not be surprising to anyone,” frequent critic @brianmcgowan44 posted on Twitter, “Milwaukee is a hell hole thanks to the revolving court system for violent criminals and a weak Mayor.”
Democrat Cavalier Johnson, 35, won a special election to become mayor last month.
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