'It's heartbreaking': 2 youths killed, 8 others hurt when gunfire erupts at Pittsburgh house party

Two young people were killed and at least eight others were injured when gunfire tore through a party at a short-term rental property in Pittsburgh early Sunday morning, police said.

More than 200 people, many of them underage, were inside the Airbnb rental when the shooting occurred around 12:30 a.m., Pittsburgh police said.

A police release initially said nine people had been injured, but authorities later revised the number.

At least one of the gunshot victims was as young as 14 years old, Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert said Sunday during a press conference. He did not identify the two deceased victims, who were both male.

No arrests were immediately reported, but Schubert said “it is our top priority to find out who did this and get them off the street.” Schubert said police believe there were multiple shooters.

“It’s heartbreaking; here we are at Easter and we have multiple families, two that won’t see a loved one. ... How can you even have a holiday when your child was involved in something traumatic like this?" he said.

The tragedy was one of three high-profile shootings that marred the Easter weekend. At least nine people were injured in a shooting at a club in Hampton County, South Carolina, and 14 people were hurt when gunfire erupted at a crowded Columbia, South Carolina, mall, sending shoppers scrambling for safety.

The spate of violence also comes just a few days after an attack on a Brooklyn subway train, which left more than two dozen people injured.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Sunday's shooting was the fourth in less than 30 hours. In early April, Schubert released a statement addressing the "recent spate of violent crimes" in Pittsburgh.

"In a matter of five days, there have been three shootings that have taken the lives of three young people, aggravated assaults, multiple shots fired, and now, two children, two young boys, have suffered critical stabbing injuries," he wrote on April 1.

In Pittsburgh, as many as 50 rounds were fired inside the property, and shell casings from rifles and pistols were found at the scene, police said. Some partygoers apparently jumped out the windows to flee the gunfire, suffering broken bones and lacerations when they fell.

Several more shots were fired outside the home, police said, and officials were processing evidence at as many as eight separate crime scenes that stretched across several blocks.

George Stevens said he was outside a bar next door to the rental property smoking a cigarette when he heard what he thought were fireworks, then saw kids fleeing.

Stevens told The Associated Press that he let three girls hide in his vehicle and call their parents as bullets flew by. He said he saw someone inside the rental property holding a gun as children ran screaming and crying in every direction away from the building.

“It happened so quick,” he said. “It was just crazy. Kids were running everywhere.”

Airbnb spokesperson Ben Breit confirmed the house was rented through the company. He said the booker, who would have had to be 18 or older per Airbnb rules, has received a lifetime ban. Breit’s statement said the party was thrown without the knowledge of the host, whose listing banned parties and advertised an overnight noise curfew.

Mitchell Wilston, 30, told The Associated Press that he and his wife saw a line outside the rented property and cars parked the wrong way along the street as they left their home Saturday evening.

“It was so obvious that there was going to be a problem – there was a line of 14-year-old kids trying to get into this place,” he said.

Sunday morning, Wilston found his wife’s white car smeared with blood. “It’s extremely, extremely disconcerting to see the way the bullets were fired were perpendicular to our house,” he said.

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey released a statement following the shooting Sunday.

"At least 10 gunshot victims, two lives lost, and hundreds of lives forever changed, because we have yet to pass meaningful legislation to lessen the amount of guns in our streets or provide the much-needed resources to communities desperately in need. The time is now for us to move with a sense of urgency to bring justice to the victims and peace to our city," he wrote in the statement.

Pittsburgh was the site of one of the nation's most horrific mass shootings in recent years. In 2018, a gunman burst into a synagogue shouting "All Jews must die" before killing 11 worshippers and wounding six others.

The shooting at the Jewish Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood during a baby-naming ceremony shocked the nation.

Sunday's shooting occurred in Pittsburgh's East Allegheny neighborhood, also known as Deutschtown, on the city's North Side.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2 killed, 8 injured in shooting at Pittsburgh house party