HOUSTON – Houston has marked a deadly shooting spree over the last 24 hours.
Since Friday night at 10:30 p.m., there have been six shootings, where nine people in total were shot, according to data compiled by KPRC 2.
Five of those people died.
That brings the total of homicides in Houston to at least 89, per KPRC 2 data.
Most recently, Houston police said a woman was found dead in a church parking lot on Almeda Genoa in southeast Houston. Police are still working to uncover what happened and why she was shot.
“A passerby saw the car parked there and then came back by and noticed that it was running still and looked and found her deceased inside the vehicle,” said Houston police detective Andrew Barr.
After 10:30 p.m. Friday, two men suffered multiple gunshots near downtown Houston. One man died and another man was transported to the hospital.
Investigators said witnesses said a group of people on scooters were going through the street. Two brothers left the main group and went through the parking area of a McDonald’s. At that point, they came by another group standing by a vehicle. They exchanged words that escalated into a disturbance with weapons, police say.
Police said shots were fired.
Officials said it is not clear if the shots were fired from both groups on just one. There is also no suspect information available at the time. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
That was followed by five other shootings.
“We were busy last night with the homicide division. It’s just kind of been a busy year for us s far so a little bit busier than normal,” said Barr.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner also weighed in on violence across Houston.
“There’s far too much gang violence taking place in our city and again we are going to be ramping up,” he said. “We already started but we will continue to ramp resources to put more law enforcement on our streets. But at the same time that will not bring down violence in our city, we need the community to be hands-on as well.”
Police are searching for information in the shooting of the woman at the church parking lot. If you have any information on that shooting or any other shooting, you are asked to call the Houston Police Department at (713) 884-3131.