Chattanooga, Tennessee – A shooting near a Tennessee nightclub in the early hours of Sunday killed three people and injured 14 others with gunshot wounds and other injuries, police said.
Fourteen people were hit by gunfire and three by vehicles as they tried to flee the scene, Chattanooga police chief Celeste Murphy said during a news conference. Two people were killed by gunshot wounds and one died after being hit by a vehicle, Murphy said. Sixteen of the victims were adults and one was young and several were still in critical condition, he said.
Officers responded to a report of a 2:42 a.m. shooting on McCallie Avenue near a nightclub, and found several victims on arrival. He said officers immediately began providing assistance and securing the scene.
There were several shooters and Murphy asked anyone in the community to have information about the shooting that manifested itself. He said police believe it was an isolated incident and authorities do not believe there is a permanent threat to public safety.
Murphy said it would be a complex investigation in the future.
“We’re trying to determine exactly what happened and what made that happen,” he said.
The shooting comes over the weekend after six youths were injured during a shootout in a downtown Chattanooga shopping district.