Mass Shooting Turns Minnesota Park into 'War Zone,' Leaving Woman Dead and 5 Injured

A shooting at a Minnesota park has left one woman dead and five men wounded.

On Sunday, June 1, at about 9:30 p.m., officers were called to Boom Island Park in Minneapolis for reports of shots fired that were quickly upgraded to reports of a shooting, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a press conference the next morning.

Officers from the Minneapolis Police Department and from Minneapolis Park Police came upon a “very chaotic scene” with more than 100 people still in the park screaming and fleeing, he said at the press conference, which was shown on local station ABC 5 Eyewitness News.

People were gathered at the park for a “barbecue or something else” when “an altercation erupted into gunfire,” O’Hara said.

Authorities believe there was “more than one shooter” involved in the incident, he said.

Police found three male shooting victims at the scene and one female victim in a car near the entrance to the park at 11th Avenue Northeast and Sibley Street Northeast, he said.

The female victim, who has not been identified, was rushed to a local hospital where she later died.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE‘s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

One of the three male shooting victims who was rushed to the hospital by ambulance has life-threatening injuries.

Two other male victims who were taken to the hospital in private vehicles have non-life-threatening injuries.

One additional adult female was knocked unconscious in the “melee that followed” the shooting, he said. 

Authorities have not yet identified the victims.

“Our hearts go out to the woman whose life was taken in this incident and everyone else that was affected by it,” he said.

While the woman’s family is mourning her loss, authorities are sifting through “literally hundreds of pieces of evidence” at the scene, as they work to identify “all of those who are responsible for this,” O’Hara said.

“It’s a very extensive scene,” he said. “There were a whole lot of rounds fired.”

Calling the number of rounds fired “outrageous,” O’Hara said, “It’s more akin to a war zone, the amount of shell casings that the officers are recovering here. It’s just, it’s sickening.”

He said he doesn’t know exactly why people were gathered at the park or what sparked the shooting.

“I don’t know what can motivate people to come armed to a gathering like this in the way that they did,” said O’Hara.

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Minneapolis police at 612-673-5845 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Calls can be anonymous.