Two dead, three injured following shooting at campground near Beyond Wonderland festival
Grant County Sheriff's Office, in the state of Washington, later confirmed that the suspect is in custody
Two people have died and three injured following a shooting in the campground at the Gorge amphitheatre in Washington state in the US.
At the time of the shooting, sets were ongoing inside the venue, which is an approximate 20-to-30 minute walk from the campground (where many of the expected 27,000 attendees stay), as part of the electronic music-oriented Beyond Festival. Those on the event's line-up across the two days included Afrojack, Marshmello and Andy C.
Local police confirmed later in a press conference at 11:30PM local time that reports of an active shooter emerged at around 8:25PM with officers having "pursued (and) closed-in on the suspect".
Grant County Sheriff's Office also confirmed two deaths and three injuries during the press conference, the shooter among those three injured. It was also said that when law enforcement arrived on the scene, the suspect continued to "fire randomly into the crowd" before being apprehended.
The suspect's arrest was affirmed earlier in the evening at 9:19PM on the police's Facebook page, with a final update coming from the office at 00:19AM, reading:
"Due to the need to conduct interviews, gather data/evidence regarding the incident, and process the scene there are no additional details to release at this time. We ask that everyone be respectful of victims and their families as we work through these investigations. Updates will be provided in this post as they are available. Due to the volume of questions, we will survey the questions posted and answer them collectively in future updates rather than address them individually"
In response to the incident, Beyond Festival's Twitter initially referred to the shooting as an "incident". It continued that there was "no current danger to festival goers or the campgrounds" before adding a follow-up:
Whipped Cream has pulled out of the festival's second day, writing on Twitter: "I’m deeply sorry but I’m pulling off beyond wonderland tomorrow. I can’t perform knowing people just died here, we need to have some respect. I’m in utter shock and I’m going to pay my respects to the families who just lost a loved one."