This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
At least three people were wounded on Wednesday in Massachusetts in a daytime shooting, including a pregnant woman whose baby died, according to police.
Police were called to a shooting in the city of Holyoke at 12.38pm, according to officials, after a group of three men were involved in an altercation in the street.
The men fired more than six shots, witnesses told WWLP, striking at least three people, including the pregnant woman, who was on a bus.
She was rushed to hospital in critical condition, where she delivered her baby.
“The infant, who was delivered, and needed life-saving medical services, tragically passed away,” the Hampden District Attorney’s Office told The Associated Press.
Police have arrested the three men believed to have been involved in the shooting, the AP reports. They are receiving treatment in nearby hospitals and comprise the others wounded in the shooting, WBAL reports.
The city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system has recorded 113 incidents in the last 6 months, 99 of which occured near a playground or school, according to officials.
“I know one of the big factors people always think, ‘Someone will call, I heard it, but someone else will call.’ They’re not calling,” Holyoke police Chief David Pratt said earlier in the day, before the shooting, encouraging residents to report instances of gun violence. “Know that if that’s the reason, call. Because we need the information. ShotSpotter is doing an amazing job getting us into the area, into the right area, of where we need to be. We need the public to help us with these calls to bring it home so that we can make arrests, we can recover evidence quicker.”
Other cities nearby including Boston, Worcester, and Springfield have deployed the ShotSpotter system, which uses microphones to detect the location of gun shots.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.