WORLD NEWS | 9 people recovering after being shot at South Carolina party

COLUMBIA, May 1 (AP) — Nine people were wounded when a masked gunman opened fire without warning at a late-night teen party in a South Carolina park last weekend, a sheriff said.

In an update on Sunday’s shooting, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said all nine people who were shot were expected to survive and a woman was killed by a getaway vehicle. He was injured when the car ran over him, and one person suffered cuts to his hand that happened on Saturday.

Read also | Chinese crew members die after MV Hong Hai 189 and MT Petite Soeur collide off Corregidor Island (watch video).

“We’re very lucky, very happy, very grateful, and right now we believe everyone will survive,” Lott said. “It’s not because those who did the shooting didn’t try.”

Deputies were called to Meadowlake Park near Columbia around 1:20 a.m. Saturday and found only a handful of people at the scene. Shortly after, the hospital began reporting several shooting victims arriving in emergency rooms, deputies said.

Read also | India: Women fight for more toilet dignity.

Teenagers from several high schools gathered at the park for an after-get off work “pop-up party” announced on social media and not sponsored by the local recreation board, Lott said.

“It’s people posting on social media and saying, ‘Come on,’ and then the bad guys come,” the sheriff said.

Lott said the shooting appeared to be unprovoked.

“If you think wearing a mask, sneaking around buildings and shooting into crowds makes you a man — no, you’re a coward,” the sheriff said.

Many of the wounded were shot in the back as they tried to escape, Lott said.

Dozens of shell casings from several different weapons have been collected in the park, but Lott said he’s not ready to say exactly how many people may have been shot.

Those injured were between the ages of 16 and 20. Some underwent surgery on Sunday, Lotter said.

Police arrested two teens in a vehicle whose headlights came out from the scene and recovered a gun from inside the vehicle, but Lott said investigators are still trying to determine whether the gun was used in the shooting.

Lott said he expected his deputies to arrest others soon. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)