Man kills 6 people and himself at US birthday party; children not shot

A man fatally shot six people including his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself early on Sunday (May 9) at a birthday party in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but did not fire on traumatised children who were present inside a trailer at a mobile home park.

Police arrived to find six people dead plus a seventh who was seriously wounded and died after being taken to a hospital, a police statement said.

"The suspect, a boyfriend of one of the female victims, drove to the residence, walked inside and began shooting people at the party before taking his own life," said the statement released by the Colorado Springs Police Department.

"Friends, family, and children were gathered inside the trailer to celebrate when the shooting occurred," the statement said.

A motive has yet to be determined.

The shooting happened within the Canterbury Manufactured Home Community, a mobile home park of some 470 trailers and largely Latino residents on the southeast side of town, near the Colorado Springs airport, about 70 miles (110 km) south of Denver.

Police blocked off the area, where a mobile crime lab was parked near the home. A small group of adults stood nearby, some of them audibly sobbing, along with a small child.

Freddie Marquez, 33, said his mother-in-law was one of the victims and that he was at the party but left around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday.

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Some time after midnight, he received a call from the son of one of the women at the party, who was crying on the phone.

"Somebody came in and shot everybody," Marquez said, relating what he had been told on the phone.

The Denver Post quoted neighbour Yenifer Reyes as saying she was awakened by the sound of gunfire.

"I thought it was a thunderstorm. Then I started hearing sirens,"Reyes told the newspaper.

She said she saw police take children out of the trailer and put them into a squad car.

"They were crying hysterically," Reyes said.

Spate of mass shootings

The massacre was the latest in a resurgence of mass shootings in the United States after such occurrences seemed to recede during the height of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

Among the incidents this year was one in Boulder, Colorado, where a 21-year-old man has been charged with killing 10 people in a March 22 shooting spree at a supermarket about 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Denver.

That came less than a week after another 21-year-old gunman was accused of killing eight people at three Atlanta-area day spas.

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Colorado was also the state where two other deadly rampages took place, both in the Denver area: the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School that killed 15 people including the two perpetrators, and the 2012 shooting in an Aurora movie theatre that killed 12 people and wounded about 70.

The Aurora shooter is serving a life sentence.

The recent shootings have revived the gun control debate, with Democratic President Joe Biden calling them a “national embarrassment” and calling for new legislation from Congress.

But he faces serious opposition from gun rights advocates including Republicans and some Democrats who cite the US Constitution's protection of gun ownership rights.

Police said they withheld releasing details of the shooting for several hours "in order to properly and respectfully notify family members of the deceased and ensure support was in place."

The names of the victims will be released later, the statement said.