The Tampa Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office investigates a fatal shooting in the Ybor City neighborhood on October 29, 2023 in Tampa, Florida.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Police in Tampa, Florida, have arrested a man suspected of killing two people in gun violence that sparked chaos on Sunday around a clutch of bars and clubs as people celebrated Halloween, authorities said.

Sixteen people were injured, all but one by gunshot, police said.

Tyrell Stephen Phillips, 22, was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of a 14-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man following a pre-dawn clash between two groups in the historic Tampa neighborhood of Ybor City, police said.

The altercation unfolded as hundreds of people filled the streets as night spots closed after an evening of Halloween-themed celebrations, then scrambled for cover at the sound of gunfire.

Videos on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showed pandemonium as people ran through the dark while at least a dozen shots rang out. In some of the footage, police officers were seen hurrying to help people in costumes bleeding on sidewalks.

Two people were killed and 16 were taken to hospital with injuries, 15 of them with gunshot wounds, police said in a statement.

Many of the injured, who ranged in age from 18 to 27, were treated and released, but five remained in hospital, police said.

Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said witness tips to investigators played key role in helping police identify and arrest the suspected gunman. It was not clear if any other suspects were being sought.

Mourners attend a prayer vigil a day after a white man armed with a high-powered rifle and a handgun killed three Black people at a Dollar General store before shooting himself, in what local law enforcement described as a racially motivated crime in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. on August 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

White supremacy “has no place in America,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday in the wake of what authorities describe as a racially-motivated killing of three Black people in Florida over the weekend.

“Even as we continue searching for answers, we must say clearly and forcefully that white supremacy has no place in America,” Jean-Pierre said.

A 21-year old white gunman shot and killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday. The shooter, Ryan Christopher Palmeter later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Local sheriff T.K. Waters has said the shooting was racially motivated. Authorities say the shooter left behind several manifestos for media, his parents and law enforcement detailing his hatred for Black people.

Hate crimes in the U.S. surged nearly 12% in 2021, the latest data available, the FBI said in March. Hate crimes are those fuelled by racial and ethnic bias.

“Over the last 60 years this country has come a long way,” to battle racism and white supremacy, Stephen Benjamin, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, told reporters at the White House press briefing. “People of good will have to lean into that progress.

President Joe Biden has spoken with the city’s mayor and sheriff about the shooting, Mr. Benjamin said.

Asked about a possible connection between the Florida shootings and attempts by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, to change how slavery is taught in the state’s public schools in a way that critics say minimizes its brutality, Mr. Benjamin said it was important to teach all of the country’s history.

“I don’t think its a stretch to suggest that trying to rewrite American history is wrong, but also encourages our children and those among us not to lean in to the beautiful and also the painful past of what our history looks like and encouraging people to move forward together,” Mr. Benjamin said.