BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – Around 400 people were at a party at an East Bakersfield apartment complex when dozens of shots rang out, wounding six people early Saturday morning, according to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.
Based on evidenced recovered at the scene, KCSO says, it appears at least one partygoer fired back at the suspects in a white sedan that fled the scene. Officials said nearly 100 empty shell casings of multiple calibers were recovered at the scene in the 3500 block of Pioneer Drive.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office responded the shooting early Saturday at around 12:26 a.m. in the 3500 block of Pioneer Drive.
A 14-year-old girl and five adults were wounded by gunfire. All six were transported to a hospital with wounds that were described as non-life threatening. The victims were uncooperative and deputies have limited information to go on, a spokesperson said Saturday evening.
Officials added there were no calls about the party before shots were fired.
The suspects were only described by deputies as four black males, in a white sedan.
It wasn’t immediately known that the shooting was gang-related because victims are not cooperating with investigators, according to the sheriff’s office.
The overnight shooting has been described as a mass shooting. According to a definition by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit that tracks shootings from law enforcement and media reports, a “mass shooting” is a shooting that wounds at least four people in a single incident at the same general time and location.
The Pioneer Drive shooting is one of three separate shootings that occurred within three hours in Kern County. One man was shot and killed at a motel on Union Avenue in Central Bakersfield late Friday night; another was critically wounded in a shooting on Planz Road in South Bakersfield at around 1:30 a.m. Saturday.