(HOUSTON) — A 23-second running gun battle in which 30 to 50 shots were fired during a teen’s birthday party at a rented Airbnb house in a suburb of Houston left one person wounded and police searching for suspects, authorities said.
Ring doorbell camera footage from a home near the party house was obtained by ABC station KTRK in Houston and captured the chaotic scene of multiple people running down a residential street and diving behind parked cars for cover as the gun violence unfolded.
“There were so many shots, I just can’t believe more weren’t wounded, killed, more damage,” a woman who lives near the Airbnb rental and witnessed the incident after arriving home with her daughter told KTRK. “You know it could have been so much worse.”
Investigator Robert Gonzales of the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office said the shooting happened Saturday night in Manville, about 24 miles south of Houston. He said one teenager was shot in the foot.
Gonzales said the shooting erupted when a fight broke at a 16th birthday party that was being held at the rented Airbnb house.
No arrests were reported as of Tuesday morning.
“We’re attempting to locate and get more information from the public,” Gonzales said.
Authorities said at least three guns were involved in the shooting, which left numerous cars in the neighborhood pocked with bullet holes and at least one window of a neighboring home shattered.
Airbnb said in a statement that it has removed the home from its website and suspended the person who rented it pending its own investigation.
“Airbnb bans parties, and we condemn this senseless gun violence,” the company said in its statement. “We have reached out to the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office and stand ready to support their investigation. We take party house issues seriously and support fair regulations that balance anti-party measures while empowering our local Host community to continue earning meaningful additional income.”
The Texas shooting happened on the same day as another shooting at an Airbnb rental house in the Sacramento, Calif., suburb of Elk Grove left an 18-year-old man dead, according to the Elk Grove Police Department. No arrests have been made.
A preliminary investigation found that the Airbnb rental was being used for a party at the time of the fatal shooting in Elk Grove, police said in a statement. Detectives suspect there were 10 to 15 people at the house party but most were gone when officers arrived and found the victim inside the house, according to the statement.
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