4 Killed and 7 Wounded in Shooting at July 4 Party in Louisiana

Four people were killed and seven others were wounded in a shooting at an Independence Day celebration in Shreveport, La., on Tuesday night, the authorities said.

Officers responded to a call of shots fired shortly before midnight at a gathering in the northwest section of the city, Sgt. Angie Willhite of the Shreveport police said on Wednesday. At least one gunman opened fire at a gathering of about 100 people, she said.

The initial death count stood at three people overnight, with two people who were pronounced dead at the scene and a third who later died at a hospital, but the police discovered another body in a nearby field on Wednesday morning, Sergeant Willhite said. All four were adults.

A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear and no arrests have been made. Sergeant Willhite said the police found “some rifle shell casings on the scene,” but it was unclear whether the casings were from the same gun.

Sergeant Willhite said the neighborhood is within the Shreveport city limits, but is in an area known as “the country city,” where pastures with horses are interspersed with apartment complexes and big clearings or open lots. She described it as a place with “a lot of horseback riding, a lot of family, always a lot of get-togethers.”

The party was advertised via posters in the neighborhood, she said. When the police arrived, Sergeant Willhite said, officers had difficulty getting through the streets because of the crowds, and they had to abandon their cars to reach the injured on foot. One of the injured victims was in “extremely critical condition,” she said, and six others had non-life-threatening injuries.

Sergeant Willhite said investigators were still interviewing people who attended the party.

“There was a large crowd, so we know somebody has information,” she said. “It’s been challenging so far.”

The shooting punctuated a long and violent holiday weekend in the United States.

On Monday night in southwest Philadelphia, someone dressed in a ski mask and body armor opened fire on a street, killing five people and wounding two others. Hours later, three people were killed and eight others were injured in Fort Worth, where several men fired into a crowd.

There were other shootings over the weekend, including in Lansing, Mich., and Wichita, Kan., where multiple people opened fire at a nightclub early Sunday, injuring 11 people. In Baltimore, two people were killed and 28 others were wounded at a holiday block party on Sunday.