Two dead in Texas shooting

TEXAS: Two people were fatally shot and at least 12 others sustained gunshot wounds after a gunman opened fire at a crowded homecoming party in Greenville, Texas, early on Sunday, the police said.

Sheriff’s deputies were responding to a complaint about attendees at the party having parked their cars illegally on the shoulder of Highway 380, Chief Deputy Buddy Oxford of the Hunt County Sheriff’s Department said.

A little after midnight and while deputies were still there, a gunman opened fire on partygoers with a handgun, Sheriff Randy Meeks said at a news conference on Sunday morning. Sheriff Meeks said the gunman had come through a back door and shot a “target victim.” The other victims were shot at random, he said.

“That is our theory with what circumstantial evidence we have,” Sheriff Meeks said. There were about 750 people at the party when the police arrived, the sheriff said, but not many of the partygoers were cooperating with investigators.

No deputies were injured. The names of those killed and injured were not released. In addition to the 12 wounded by gunfire, two other partygoers sustained unspecified injuries. At an earlier news conference, officials said they believed the gunman had used a semiautomatic rifle, but they later said they believed it had been a handgun.

The shooting took place at the Party Venue, a family-owned party hall near Greenville, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas, at a Texas A&M University-Commerce homecoming party that had not been sanctioned by the school, officials said.