US police said on Sunday that 4 people were killed in a shooting in Lakeland, Florida, before authorities could arrest the attacker.
The police indicated that the perpetrator of the accident was arrested, noting that he was wearing a bullet-proof vest near a house with a bomb.
According to the police statement, the attacker killed a man, a woman and an infant inside the house, and another woman inside a second home on the same property, and also shot an 11-year-old girl several times and was flown to Tampa General Hospital for surgery.
Police said the attacker then engaged in a gun battle with law enforcement officers before his arrest, and later attempted to take a pistol from a hospital officer.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd confirmed that the suspect was shot once during a shootout with police, then left the house and surrendered to police.
Until the time of publication of the news, the cause of the attack and the identity of the perpetrator were not revealed.
More photos from the scene of the quadruple homicide in #Lakeland https://t.co/D6DOaLLc7u pic.twitter.com/KNuIIqNhXh
— Polk County Sheriff 🚔 (@PolkCoSheriff) September 5, 2021
Last July, the United States recorded the highest death toll in armed violence in two decades, with shootings leaving 430 dead and 1,007 wounded.
Over the past year, the Gun Violence Archive reported more than 43,000 gun violence-related killings in America, making 2020 the deadliest year for shootings in at least 20 years.