Associated Press
Family and friends console one another outside 7318 Enchanted Creek in Cypress, Texas, on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013, after two people were killed and at least 22 others were injured Saturday night when gunfire rang out at a large house party in a Houston suburb, sending partygoers fleeing in panic, authorities said.
Published Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013 | 11:01 a.m.
Updated Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013 | 1:58 p.m.
HOUSTON — Celebratory gunshots fired at a girl's 18th birthday party triggered more gunfire that left two people dead, two critically injured and nearly two-dozen injured in a chaotic scene where people jumped from second-floor windows to escape the shooting at a suburban Houston home, authorities said Sunday.
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said the gathering Saturday night that drew more than 100 people, most of them 17- to 19-year-olds, became a "birthday party gone wild."
He said it appears partygoers were dancing in the home when someone armed with a pistol shot into the air in celebration. In the ensuing confusion, another person who was armed began firing into the crowd, Garcia said. Young people then streamed into the narrow street to avoid the burst of gunshots that followed shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday.
Authorities have given varying accounts of the number of people injured, but they clarified Sunday that 20 were hurt, with 16 suffering gunshot wounds and four others varying injuries such as a fracture and twisted ankles in the panic to flee.
The two people killed, one an 18-year-old male and the other a 16-year-old female, were high school students in Cypress, Garcia said.
He chastised the party organizers, who advertised the event on social media, saying "you have no control on who to expect at your door."
Authorities are searching for two gunmen, he said, one who's about 17 years old and the other believed to be about 22.
"It's a horrible combination of immaturity, access to a firearm, and the inability to control one's self," he said.
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