Two people are dead and two are injured after shootings that occurred less than 12 hours apart in Rapid City.
The shootings appear to be unrelated, according to the Rapid City Police Department. The names of the victims will be released once their families are notified.
Police have not arrested anyone but have spoken with witnesses who have provided helpful leads on possible suspects, according to spokesman Brendyn Medina. He said marijuana and methamphetamine were found at both of the scenes.
A news release from police says the first shooting was reported around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday at a home on the 400 block of Tamarack Drive. Police found an unresponsive man who died after being transported to the hospital.
The second shooting was reported around 4:15 a.m. on Monday at a home on Marquette Drive. Officers found three people who had been shot.
One man was dead while the two other victims were treated for serious but non-life threatening injuries.
“The rate of gun deaths in the United States continues to rise and unfortunately Rapid City has not been exempt from that trend,” Police Chief Don Hedrick said in a news release.
2020 has 30% more homicides than in 2019, according to the Pew Research Center. The increase is the highest in more than a century but the number of fatalities is much lower than the peak in the early 1990s.
The first nine months of 2021 saw more homicides than in recent years but fewer deaths than the recent peak in summer 2020, according a Council on Criminal Justice study examining data from 29 cities.
