Updated March 28, 2021 at 1:08 AM ET
Two people are dead and at least eight others were wounded after three separate shooting incidents near the oceanfront in Virginia Beach, Va., on Friday night.
Police officials say officers were on patrol in the city's resort area when they heard multiple gunshots at 11:22 p.m., according to a statement from Virginia Beach Police Department on Saturday. When they arrived at the scene, they found several victims suffering from gunshot wounds.
No fatalities were reported at the first incident, which occurred on the 2000 block of Atlantic Avenue. At least eight people were transported to hospitals for their injuries. Authorities said the injuries ranged from "serious to life-threatening."
One woman died at a second, separate shooting event. Police have identified the woman as 28-year-old Deshayla Harris of Norfolk, Va., who was a bystander at the shooting on the 300 block of 19th Street, according to a later news release on Saturday.
At a third incident, just around the corner from the first shooting event, police said Donovon Lynch, a 25-year old-man from Virginia Beach, died in an officer-involved shooting in the 300 block of 20th Street.
The department's homicide unit is investigating what happened.
Three suspects in connection with the first shooting incident are now in custody at Virginia Beach City Jail, police said in a news release. Ahmon Jahree Adams, 22, Nyquez Tyyon Baker, 18, and Devon Maurice Dorsey Jr., 20, have each been charged with seven counts of felonious assault, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, and reckless handling of a firearm.
The officer involved in the shooting that resulted in Lynch's death has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, which police called standard procedure. Police have not released the name of the officer.
In addition to the shootings, a Virginia Beach police officer was struck by a car and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
"What you can see is we have a very chaotic incident — a very chaotic night in the beach. Many different crime scenes," Police Chief Paul Neudigate said.
The shootings in Virginia Beach follow mass shootings in the Atlanta area and in Boulder, Colo., this month, in which 18 people were killed in total. The Virginia Beach community also experienced a mass shooting in 2019, when a man killed 12 people and injured several others at a municipal building.
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