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Local authorities are investigating a shooting that took place Tuesday night at a basketball game in Del City, Oklahoma. Located near Oklahoma City, the boys basketball game between Del City High School and Millwood High School ended with a ring of gunshots inside the gymnasium.
A video posted on Twitter captured the morbid moment, as the game’s announcers, along with hundreds of children and their families, either ducked down or ran for cover.
Police say at least one adult male was transported to a hospital in an unknown condition after the shots rang out inside the John Smith Fieldhouse immediately after the end of the game, according to KFOR.
“After the completion of the boys basketball game against Millwood High School, a fight occurred and gunshots were fired inside the field house. The Del City Police Department is onsite and investigating the incident,” district officials said in a statement to local families.
The details behind the altercation and parties involved remain unclear as officials continue to comb through surveillance footage.
“We are still in the preliminary stages. We are reviewing surveillance video from inside the building,” Maj. Brad Cowden, with the Del City Police Department, said. “It’s going to take quite a while to go through all that information. Right now, we are just trying to preserve as much evidence as we can with the weather.”
Del City school shooting under investigation
The shooting at Del City High School marks the latest in a string of mass shootings at schools that have increasingly gripped the nation over the last two decades.
Less than a month into the new year, at least three school shootings have already taken place around the nation this year as of Jan. 9, according to EducationWeek.
No solution to the crisis appears in sight as the country remains fractured between liberals and conservatives on the right approach to take. While Democrats want to ban certain automatic weapons, Republicans prefer to arm teachers and staff.
It’s unclear how either of those approaches would’ve prevented Tuesday’s shooting at Del City.
For its part, Everytown Research and Policy lists several recommendations to prevent school shootings. They include: enacting secure firearm storage laws, passing extreme risk laws, raising the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons, requiring background checks on all sales, enhancing school security measures, creating evidence-based crisis assessment programs, and enacting trauma-informed emergency planning.
Following the shooting, district officials moved to make Wednesday classes virtual for its students.