Two 17-year-olds were fatally shot in Pine Bluff on Thursday, and police say there is a "very good possibility" the deaths are related.
According to a news release from the city's Police Department, officers responded to a shots-fired call near the intersection of 25th and Orange streets shortly after 3:30 p.m. But while officers were looking for the source of the gunfire, spokesman Lt. David De Foor said, two males arrived at Jefferson Regional Medical Center with gunshot wounds.
One sustained a non-life-threatening wound to the leg while the other — a 17-year-old boy — died in surgery, according to the spokesman.
Several other people arrived at the hospital with the injured, and there was "a lot of emotion and a disturbance," the release states. Officers reportedly took the other arrivals to be interviewed, but one male fled.
Police said the hospital briefly went on lockdown because of the confusion, adding that there was never an active shooter or shots fired at the facility.
When investigators returned to the intersection of 25th and Orange streets to look for a crime scene, they found a car crashed in a ditch in the area of 24th and Fir streets. According to the release, officers discovered a 17-year-old who had died from several gunshot wounds in the vehicle.
De Foor said witnesses told authorities that people in two cars were shooting at one another as they drove down the street.
The investigation into the deaths is ongoing, but police believe "that it is a very good possibility" the slayings are related, the release states.
