June 18 (UPI) — The Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival in Washington state has canceled the second day of performances Sunday after a mass shooting Saturday night left two dead and three injured.
The music festival made the announcement on Facebook while thanking law enforcement and staff members who “acted quickly” to respond to the situation at the venue’s overflow camping area.
“Our heartfelt thoughts and condolences go out to the family, friends and all those affected by this tragic event,” festival organizers said in the statement.
Kyle Foreman, the spokesman for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, said during a news conference broadcasted by the agency on Facebook that the shooting happened around 8:23 p.m. at the camping ground for the Gorge Amphitheater, located “several hundred yards away” from where the event was happening.
After firing a series of initial shots, the suspected shooter walked away from where the incident began as law enforcement tried to track him down.
“The shooter continued to shoot randomly into the crowd and the suspect was eventually taken into custody. We now can confirm that there were two people killed and three injured, which includes the shooter,” Foreman said.
Foreman later confirmed that the case incident included an officer-involved shooting, as Washington state law requires local law enforcement to pass the case on to a state agency in such incidents.
“The concert continued on while the operation was going on on the other end of the venue. There was a mass information sent countywide to avoid the venue and that a shooting had happened also giving guidance to people to either run, hide or fight,” Foreman said.
“We don’t know what the motives were, what the intentions were, of the shooter.”
