Wisconsin Cemetery Shooting Injures 5 People During Funeral of 37-Year-Old Man

A shooting during a funeral in southeast Wisconsin on Thursday resulted in multiple people being shot as loved ones were paying their respects to a 37-year-old man.

Racine police told residents to keep away from Graceland Cemetery because of reports that "multiple shots" were fired at around 2:26 p.m. CT. In a statement, police authorities said there were victims in the area, but it remained unknown at the time how many were injured.

Wisconsin Cemetery Shooting

Officials also said that the scene of the crime was still being investigated and was still considered active. A representative of Draeger-Langendorg Funeral Home and Crematory said that gunfire erupted in the area as mourners at Graceland were saying goodbye to Da'Shontay Lucas King Sr.

Police officials had indicated that five people were injured in the shooting, said the funeral home, but the extent of the wounds and the victims' identities were not immediately disclosed. Photographs from the cemetery showed crime scene tape and law enforcement officials around a white casket that had yet to be lowered into its grave, as per NBC News.

The cemetery where the shooting incident occurred in Racine was about 30 miles south of downtown Milwaukee and less than four miles west of Lake Michigan. The incident followed several mass shootings in the United States that have revived talks about gun law revisions.

Ascension All Saints Hospital, located next to the cemetery, said it was treating an undisclosed number of victims from the incident. It was not immediately known if there were any fatalities as a result of the shooting.

According to NPR, the facility went on lockdown "out of an abundance of caution" following the incident, hospital authorities said in a statement. Reports said that area residents said they heard roughly 20 to 30 shots being fired at the cemetery.

A Series of Tragic Shootings

The situation comes as Tulsa Police Department Chief Wendell Franklin identified the four people that were killed during the Wednesday mass shooting. They were 59-year-old Dr. Preston Phillips, 48-year-old Dr. Stephanie Husen, 40-year-old Amanda Glenn, and 73-year-old William Love.

The gunman opened fire at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical center and targeted a doctor that he blamed for the pain that he was experiencing after recent back surgery. Franklin noted that the suspect, identified as Michael Louis, focused on Phillips, who was his surgeon.

The chief added that they had a letter on the suspect, which made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way. The gunman, who died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, used two recently purchased firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle.

It was only the latest in a series of high-profile shooting incidents in the United States, following the ones from Buffalo, New York, where 10 Black people were shot and killed, and in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were murdered.

United States President Joe Biden is expected to address the country on Thursday night regarding the series of mass shootings and ramp up his call for Congress to pass "common sense" gun reform measures, USA Today reported.