MUNCIE, Ind. — Police Chief Nate Sloan said Monday that investigators do not believe the fatal shooting of a local man early Sunday — and the wounding of 17 other victims — was the act of “one person targeting this group.”
Sloan and Deputy Police Chief Melissa Criswell participated in a press conference with Mayor Dan Ridenour to discuss the Sunday killing of Joseph E. Bonner III.
The 30-year-old Muncie man was fatally shot about 1:15 a.m. during a large outdoor party at Willard and Hackley streets.
The 17 other shooting victims were taken to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, with four later being transferred by medical helicopter to Indianapolis medical facilities.
Sloan and Criswell said they could not discuss details of their investigation, or speculate on how many people might have fired gunshots at the eastside intersection. No arrests have yet been made.
More: Muncie shooting leaves one dead, 17 wounded
But the police chief said it was not believed a single gunman had set out to harm a large number of people.
Criswell said of the surviving victims, five continued to be treated at the Muncie hospital on Tuesday.
Of the four victims flown to Indianapolis, one was listed in critical condition, while two were in stable condition and the fourth had been released.
Two of the shooting victims were under the age of 18, Criswell said.
The shooting victims included people visiting Muncie from out of town and in a couple of instances from out of state.
A 19th person injured at the scene was apparently struck by a vehicle in the wake of the gunfire.
The shootings took place the same weekend the annual Muncie Homecoming festival was conducted, but the block party at Willard and Hackley was not associated with that event, officials said.
Sloan said the early morning street party was “out of control,” with attendance estimated as high as 1,000 people.
Criswell described the mayhem that emergency responders found at the shooting scene, with police officers applying tourniquets to victims and in some cases racing them to the hospital in their patrol cars.
She said there was also “chaos” early Sunday outside the hospital, where people, some of them agitated, gathered after learning of the shootings.
By Monday, there was little at the scene of the shootings to suggest anything out of the ordinary had occurred there — with one exception.
A small blue floral display was set up at the northeast corner of the intersection, an apparent memorial at the scene of Sunday’s slaying and bloodshed.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to the Muncie Police Department’s detective division at 765-747-4867 or dispatchers at 765-747-4838.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Chief: Muncie shootings not the act of ‘one person targeting this group’