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North Charleston Mass Shooting Kills Teenager and Injures More Than A Dozen Others

 Vacant field in the Deas Community of North Charleston where police say multiple people opened fire on a crowd during an illegal concert on May 22, 2021
North Charleston Police
Vacant field in the Deas Community of North Charleston where police say multiple people opened fire on a crowd during an illegal concert on May 22, 2021.

A 14-year-old girl is dead, and more than a dozen others have been wounded in a North Charleston mass shooting the police chief says should have never happened.

“They never should have been set up in the first place here,” Chief Reggie Burgess said.

Chief Burgess pointed to photos during a press conference Sunday showing the remnants of what he called an illegal concert on private property where alcohol was served the night before.

The vacant field in the Deas Hill area off Piggly Wiggly Drive is where the chief says shots first rang out just after 10:30 p.m. following a fight near the stage Saturday night.

“Individuals were angry at each other,” Chief Burgess said. “They didn’t care who got hit.”

Investigators are now looking for several gunmen and canvassing multiple crime scenes where the deadly fight spilled out into other parts of the community.

Chief Burgess is urging people to come forward with information.

“Step up and do right by that young lady and those other 14 victims,” he said.

The police chief says he knows the family of the teenager killed and spent much of the day consoling them.

The violence in North Charleston was part of a wave of mass shootings across the nation this weekend. Seven people were killed and 33 injured in shootings in Ohio, New Jersey and South Carolina.

Victoria Hansen is our Lowcountry connection covering the Charleston community, a city she knows well. She grew up in newspaper newsrooms and has worked as a broadcast journalist for more than 20 years. Her first reporting job brought her to Charleston where she covered local and national stories like the Susan Smith murder trial and the arrival of the Citadel’s first female cadet.