A manhunt was under way in the American state of Ohio on Sunday after at least 12 people were shot, two of them critically, near a popular summer festival in the city of Toledo.
The gunfire broke out on Saturday afternoon close to the Old West End Festival, an annual two-day celebration held in one of the country’s largest surviving neighbourhoods of Victorian houses. Police believe two people opened fire and were “probably shooting at each other”, according to Toledo Police Deputy Chief Joe Heffernan, who addressed reporters at a news conference on Saturday night. Neither was in custody, he said.
What had been a relaxed gathering of live music, house tours and food stalls turned to panic in seconds. Footage reviewed by CNN showed festivalgoers screaming and scrambling for cover between golf carts and food trucks as rapid bursts of gunfire rang out. By Sunday morning, no arrests had been announced.
Kevin Berry told the Associated Press that he had been sitting in the neighbourhood arboretum, listening to a band with friends, when the shots began. “Everybody hit the deck,” he said. When he looked up, he saw a gun being thrown to the ground less than 50 feet away, and officers who were already stationed at the event rushing towards the scene. Two other people who were there described the moment to the broadcaster WTOL as “pandemonium”. One man, who asked not to be named, recalled the confusion: “Once I heard, ‘Everybody get back,’ everybody was falling, everybody tripping, couldn’t see what it was, couldn’t see nothing.”
The victims ranged widely in age. Police Lt Dan Gerken said he had spoken to those wounded, the youngest aged 14 and the oldest 61, and he made a direct appeal to families across the city. “There’s kids out there that probably know more than all of us standing here,” he said, urging parents to ask their children what they had seen. “If we get help from the community, it’ll be hopefully sooner than later.”
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz told CNN affiliate WTOL earlier in the day that all of those injured were expected to survive. The streets where they had gathered, however, were left as a crime scene, littered with abandoned trainers, plastic cups and overturned coolers — the belongings of people who had come out for a drink and some music before being forced to run.
Investigators are now leaning heavily on the public. Officials confirmed that extra officers had been on duty for the festival, among them a large group of off-duty police working the event itself, yet the search for those responsible appears to hinge on evidence gathered from the crowd. “We are at the mercy of the evidence in the video that we’re collecting,” Gerken said. The city’s safety director, George Kral, was equally blunt in his appeal. “I am imploring my fellow Toledoans to look through your cellphone video and reach out to TPD and help them catch the people who did this,” he said. “Please help us help you.” Police declined to say whether they had identified any specific people of interest.
The shooting prompted organisers to cancel the second day of the festival. “After discussion with festival organisers, law enforcement and the City of Toledo, we feel that it would not be compassionate, responsible or possible to continue the festival,” they wrote.
The incident is one of at least 170 mass shootings recorded in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and the latest example of a community event — like a festival or a graduation ceremony — descending into bloodshed. The mayor reflected on that grim familiarity in a statement. “What happened today at the Old West End Festival, sadly, has happened in too many American cities,” Kapszukiewicz said. “But we should never shrug our shoulders and accept it as the price of living in a free society. As a country, we must do better.”
The violence came despite signs of progress on crime in the city, which is home to about 270,000 people in north-west Ohio. The Toledo Police Department has reported that shooting incidents fell by 15 per cent last year compared with 2024.
Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine, said he was “deeply concerned” by events in the city. “Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence,” he wrote on X. “We are confident that law enforcement will locate the suspects involved in this senseless crime.”
