The police in Las Cruces, N.M., said they were investigating a shooting at a park that left several people wounded.
The Las Cruces Police Department would not confirm the number of injured or killed, but a journalist for The New York Times who was at the scene saw what appeared to be two lifeless bodies on the ground.
The shooting occurred around 10 p.m. on Friday near the parking lot at Young Park, the police said on social media. Officers arrived and found multiple people with gunshot wounds, and they were sent to local hospitals, including the University Medical Center of El Paso.
Witnesses said the shooting took place at a monthly gathering where drivers of modified sports cars show them off. Around 200 people had gathered for the event, they said, which had a party-like atmosphere. They described seeing an altercation before shots rang out and people began to flee. At least one man had what looked like an assault-style weapon, witnesses said.
“They just started shooting and they just started running around everybody,” said Angel Legaspy, a 20-year-old whose parked car was hit by bullets. The shooting was indiscriminate, “like all over the place,” he said.
By midnight, the police had cordoned off the area near the bodies.
The police said they had not identified any suspects or possible motive. They were receiving help from the New Mexico State Police, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
