Mississippi school homecoming celebrations turn deadly as 6 people are killed in separate shootings

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LELAND, Miss. (AP) — High school homecoming celebrations in Mississippi ended in gunfire, with two separate shootings on opposite sides of the state Friday night that left at least six people dead and many more injured, authorities said.

Four of the dead were killed in downtown Leland, after a high school football homecoming game in the Mississippi Delta region on the state's western edge, a state senator said Saturday. On the east side of the state, a pregnant woman was among the dead, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said.

In Leland, about 20 people were injured in the gunfire after people gathered in the downtown area following the game, state Sen. Derrick Simmons said. Of the 20 who were hurt, four were in critical condition and flown from a hospital in nearby Greenville to a larger medical center in the state capital city of Jackson, Simmons told The Associated Press. He was being updated on developments from law enforcement authorities in the Delta.

On Saturday, pieces of tattered, yellow crime scene tape were wrapped around a pole in the city’s tiny downtown area. The police tape could also be seen in front of a boarded-up storefront, tangled up at the base of a sign commemorating the late soul singer Tyrone Davis, who was born nearby.

The crime scene is not far from City Hall, where family members gathered to seek answers. The media was not allowed inside.

“People were just congregating and having a good time in the downtown of Leland,” Simmons said of the town with a population of fewer than 4,000 people.

He was told that after the gunfire, the scene was “very chaotic,” as police, sheriff’s deputies and ambulances “responded from all over.”

“It’s just senseless gun violence,” he said. “What we are experiencing now is just a proliferation of guns just being in circulation.”

No arrests have been announced, and Simmons said late Saturday morning that he had not heard any information about possible suspects.

One witness, Camish Hopkins, described seeing people wounded and bleeding from various parts of their bodies and four people lying dead on the ground.

“It was the most horrific scene I’d ever seen,” Hopkins told The Associated Press after the meeting at City Hall.

Police shouted at people to keep behind crime-scene tape in the chaos, Hopkins added.

“No one was trying to really help,” Hopkins said. “Leland failed Leland yesterday, but I know that we can do better because this isn’t Leland.”

Meanwhile, police in the small Mississippi town of Heidelberg in the eastern part of the state are investigating a shooting during that community's homecoming weekend that left two people dead.

Both of them were killed on the school campus Friday night, Heidelberg Police Chief Cornell White said. He declined to say whether the victims were students or provide other information about the crimes.

“Right now we’ve still got a subject at large, but I can’t give specifics,” White said Saturday morning.

An 18-year-old man was being sought for questioning in the Heidelberg shooting, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The sheriff asked that anyone with information contact the police chief or sheriff’s office.

The shooting in Heidelberg happened on the school campus where the Heidelberg Oilers were playing their homecoming football game Friday night. The town of about 640 residents is about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southeast of the state capital of Jackson.

It wasn’t clear exactly when the gunfire occurred or how close it was to the stadium. White said he was at the scene Saturday investigating, and that more information might be released in coming days.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is helping local and federal law enforcement agencies in investigating, the governor said.

“Our state is praying for the victims and their families, as well as the entire Heidelberg and Leland communities,” Reeves said in a social media post. "Those responsible will be brought to justice.”

In Sharkey County, Mississippi, also in the Mississippi Delta region, the local sheriff was investigating yet another shooting after a high school football game in the area, authorities said.

Two people have been arrested in that shooting, which happened at a local school after its game Friday night, Sharkey County Sheriff Herbert Ceaser Sr. said in a statement.

The statement did not include any information on possible injuries, but said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family during this incredibly difficult time.” The sheriff couldn't immediately be reached for more information on Saturday.