The hail of Texas gunfire was part of a wave of violence on Halloween that left at least 24 dead and 94 wounded across the country, according to police statements, The New York Times reported.
The shootings stretched from California to Delaware. They unfolded at nightclubs, costume stores, outside stadiums and near college campuses.
The violence came as the nation celebrated Halloween, a holiday that mixes costume-clad revelers with alcohol consumption and drug use.
Those ingredients, coupled with access to firearms, can lead to violence, experts say.
It is unknown whether the weekend’s violence was outsized for recent holiday weekends, but previous studies have shown spikes in violence on Halloween.
For instance, Oct 31 ranks as the third-most violent day of the year, following only July 4 and Jan 1, according to an analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation incident data for Boston from 2005 to 2009 by James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University.
For minors, Oct 31 is the most dangerous day of the year, he said. “They are out in the evening, interacting with strangers,” Fox said in an interview on Nov 1.
In Detroit, a five-year-old still in her Halloween costume was struck in the chest by a bullet as she played in the back room of her house after a night of trick-or-treating, Arnold Williams, deputy chief of the Detroit Police Department, said at a news briefing.
“She had to tell her mom, ‘I think I’ve been shot,’” he said. The five-year-old is in stable condition.
In Jacksonville, Florida, 13 people were shot, and two died in two unrelated shootings.
While waiting in line for a Halloween party, a 17-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet at around 1.40am local time on Nov 1. Two others injured in that incident had also been “unintended targets”, according to the Jacksonville Police Department.
At another location in Jacksonville, 10 people were shot at around 3.45am on Nov 1 as a house party of more than 100 people spilt into the street.
A 20-year-old man was killed, and a 15-year-old girl was injured but is in stable condition. One victim remains in critical condition.
A shooting also occurred at a nightclub in Jackson, Mississippi, leaving two dead and four injured.
At a costume store in Northern California, a gunman killed a pregnant mother of four and injured six others, including two teenagers who were in critical condition on Oct 31.
In Oklahoma City, officers responded to a disturbance at a trailer park during a Halloween party.
One person was shot multiple times in the leg and is expected to survive. Two people at the scene were fatally struck by a vehicle, but the circumstances were unclear, according to the Oklahoma City Police Department.
More than two dozen people were shot near college campuses or at university events.
One person was killed, and eight were injured outside Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, where Alabama A&M played Alabama State earlier in the day, in a rivalry matchup known as the Magic City Classic.
About 970km north, in Bloomington, Illinois, officers assisted eight gunshot victims near the Illinois Wesleyan University campus.
A 19-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Seven others were transported to area hospitals, and one of them remains in critical condition, according to the Bloomington Police Department.
As officers responded in Illinois, the police in Bloomington, Indiana, about 320km south-east, heard gunfire erupt from a large crowd near the campus of Indiana University, which was celebrating homecoming in addition to Halloween.
“Multiple individuals were located in the downtown area with wounds believed to have been caused by the shooting,” the Bloomington Police Department said in a statement.
Seven people were transported to area hospitals. Officers detained a male subject who fled the area with an exposed firearm, but they said they did not know if he had discharged the weapon.
Even as the data points to the risk of violence on Halloween, preventing it is difficult, experts on gun violence say.
“The police can’t be inside every bar. They can’t be in every parking lot,” said Alexis Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Miami and former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Justice Department during the Biden administration.
In Dallas, at least four people were killed, and 15 others were injured in the three shootings in the Deep Ellum neighborhood, which occurred within a 75-minute period.
There was no indication that the shootings were connected, and the number of casualties could continue to rise, the authorities said.
“We knew it was Saturday night. We knew it was Halloween, so we were staffed properly,” Daniel Comeaux, the Dallas police chief, said at a news briefing on Nov 1.
Images and videos circulating on social media showed people running for safety in the streets of Deep Ellum, which is home to several bars, restaurants and concert venues.
Recently, the neighborhood has been plagued by safety concerns over a wave of crime. At least seven bars and restaurants, including some long-time establishments, have closed in Deep Ellum in 2026.
By the morning of Nov 1, the streets were largely empty and littered with trash after the police cordoned off parts of the neighborhood.
“This is completely unacceptable,” Comeaux said.