At least one person was dead and nine others were injured after an apparent mass shooting Tuesday night in a suburban area north of Baltimore, authorities said.
Officers responded to reports of multiple gunshots fired at around 7:15 p.m. local time in Towson, a community about 15 miles north of Baltimore, according to Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough. Responding officers searched the scene and discovered multiple victims.
The first officer that arrived at the scene found a vehicle “on its side and in flames,” McCullough said during a news conference Tuesday night. Officers then alerted the Baltimore County Fire Department.
Fire personnel then treated the victims and transported them to the hospital, according to McCullough. Authorities later determined that at least one person was killed and nine others were injured.
“It appears to be a mass shooting incident. We have multiple persons that are shot right now,” McCullough said. “We’re determining the circumstances and the conditions in this case.”
Authorities said the investigation remains ongoing and have not yet identified possible suspects. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Baltimore Field Division also assisted police at the scene.
McCullough noted that there was no immediate threat and that the shooting appeared to be an isolated incident.
“It appears that the individuals in this case somehow knew one another and that this incident was intentional and targeted towards the individuals that were involved in this incident,” McCullough added.
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Vehicle discovered on fire near funeral home
The vehicle found in flames was in the area of a funeral home, according to McCullough and Baltimore County Fire Department Chief Joseph Dixon. McCullough said investigators were looking into the circumstances surrounding the vehicle and shooting.
“What we do know is that the vehicle appeared to flip over that location. It caught fire somehow,” McCullough said. “We do know that there’s multiple gunshots to the facade of the building.”
Authorities were also investigating additional scenes where other gunshots were reported by residents in the neighborhood, according to McCullough.
McCullough urged people with information on the incident to contact authorities.
‘These types of incidents are unheard of here’
Tuesday’s incident is the latest mass shooting to rock the nation. The incident comes on the heels of a deadly school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday.
There have been 490 mass shooting incidents in the U.S. so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that documents gun violence incidents across the country. The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident with “a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.”
“This is an incident that is shocking, particularly for those of us in Baltimore County,” Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski said during Tuesday’s news conference. “These types of incidents are unheard of here, and so it really shocks the conscience … our hearts go out to anyone who’s impacted by violence.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Maryland police say shooting near Baltimore left 1 dead and 9 injured