One dead, three wounded in Texas shooting

LOCKHART, the United States -- One person was killed and three others were wounded earlier Sunday morning after a shooting happened in downtown Austin, capital city of the southern U.S. state of Texas.

Austin police said that after receiving reports of gunshots in the crowded entertainment area on Sixth Street and San Jacinto Boulevard just shortly after 2:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), police rushed to the site to discover five people shot, according to local TV station ABC13.

A suspect started firing into the crowd after an initial disturbance. A woman was declared dead at the scene and three other women were sent to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

The wounded are in critical condition but their wounds were not considered life-threatening, while another victim refused to be sent to hospital.

"It was a very chaotic scene, and a lot of people running in different directions with all the gunshots coming out," Austin police Chief of Staff Brian Manley said.

Manley said police are trying to determine who the suspects are, and he didn't rule out the possibility that a suspect might be one of those transported to the hospital for medical treatment.

He added that police had one individual who was initially noted as a person of interest. However, that person's status at this point is undetermined.

Police originally reported an active shooter scene in the area, but Manley said the two separate incidents caused the confusion. Another confrontation in a nearby parking garage was reported and a shot was fired there. A man was sent to the hospital after that confrontation, but his condition was not clear.

Earlier this month, a gunman opened fire on police men in the northern Texas city of Dallas, killing five officers and hurt seven others.

The shootings followed several major incidents of gun violence in the country over the past several weeks.

On July 27, at least two people were killed and 19 others injured in a shooting incident at a nightclub hosting a teen party in Fort Myers, Florida.

According to the group Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been more than 200 mass shooting incidents in the United States so far this year. The loose gun control laws have been largely blamed for persistently rampant gun violence in the country.