POLICE confirm at least nine people were shot. LA Times

HOUSTON (AFP) — A shooting killed two people and wounded at least seven while they were filming a music video in the US state of Texas, authorities said Saturday.

“We are now at 9 total gunshot wound victims: 2 were confirmed deceased at scene, 1 was critical, the others remain hospitalized,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted.

The attack on a group of Hispanic men in their 20s occurred around 9:30 pm Friday (0330 GMT Saturday) at a parking lot in a residential Houston neighborhood, Gonzalez said at a media briefing that night.

A video posted on Twitter Saturday morning by a Houston Chronicle reporter showed bloodstains on the ground in the parking lot and cars dotted with bullet holes.

“There were other vehicles that were staged there, and they were filming some type of music video when, all of a sudden, basically they were ambushed, we believe by individuals in cars and/or foot that fired shots into the parking lot,” Gonzalez said in the media briefing.

Police do not yet know the motive for the shooting, he added.

According to government figures, around 40,000 people died from gunfire in 2017 in the US, a country that is plagued by frequent gun violence.