3 teens and 1 adult shot at SantaCaliGon Days festival

By Nick Sloan, Taylor Johnson and Shain Bergan

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    INDEPENDENCE, Missouri (KCTV) — Three teenagers and one adult were shot late Sunday evening at the SantaCaliGon Days festival in Independence.

All of the victims were treated at local hospitals and released by Monday morning, police said.

Shortly after 11 p.m. on Sunday, Independence police used social media to urge families to pick up their children from the festival.

At 11:20 p.m. on Sunday, police reported there were three victims, with that number increasing to four early Monday morning. Police said 5-7 shots were fired during the incident.

Three of the victims are 16 years old. One victim is 25 years old.

Independence police said the shooting happened in the carnival area of SantaCaliGon. They said they’re looking for a suspect who left the scene—He is described as a black man wearing a gray hoodie.

Police are investigating what led up to the shooting. Eyewitnesses who spoke with KCTV5 said they saw some commotion before the shots rang out.

“A lot of fights going on. It was a lot of girls fighting. It was people getting pepper-prayed. It was a lot going on,” said festival-goer Stasia Sambol. “But usually when stuff liek that goes on, I don’t think gunshots would happen. But when that happened, there were some dudes arguing too.”

No one has been arrested. Police are asking anyone with information to come forward. They will be adding more officers to the area, as they don’t plan to postpone the last day of the event.

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