A man who fatally shot five people and critically wounded a 13-year-old girl at apartments near Las Vegas has taken his own life, authorities reported, marking yet another incident of gun violence in the world’s most heavily armed society.
The North Las Vegas Police Department announced on Tuesday that 57-year-old Eric Adams killed himself when confronted by officers in a North Las Vegas neighborhood. Police had been searching for Adams since Monday night’s shootings in separate apartment units. The motive for the shootings has not been disclosed.
A spokesperson for the police department did not immediately respond to requests for more information, according to TRT.world.
The names of the victims have not been released, but police confirmed that four women and one man were among those killed. Initially, police found two women dead while investigating reports of the shooting. One woman was in her early 40s, and the other in her late 50s.
During the investigation, police learned that a teenage girl had been taken to a hospital with critical gunshot wounds and that there could be more victims in a nearby apartment. Officers then found the bodies of two women in their mid-20s and a man in his early 20s. All five victims had been shot.
Public Health Crisis
While violent crime dropped in 2023, reversing a spike during the coronavirus pandemic, firearms remain the leading cause of death among children in the US, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The Gun Violence Archive reports that there have been 249 mass shootings in the US so far in 2024. Current statistics show 8,125 homicides, 110 children, and 566 teens tragically killed.
According to data tracked by the AP news agency, there have been 12 mass killings by firearms in 2024. A mass killing is defined as an attack in which four or more people are killed, not including the perpetrator, within 24 hours.
On Tuesday, the US Surgeon General declared gun violence a public health crisis, driven by the rapidly increasing number of firearm-related injuries and deaths in the country. Efforts to control guns are often hindered by the courts.
In 2022, the conservative-majority US Supreme Court expanded gun rights, changing the way courts evaluate restrictions on firearms. It recently overturned a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, the rapid-fire gun accessories used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
