Cincinnati police give update on shooting at Bramble Park

CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Cincinnati police have not made any arrests for the shooting at Bramble Park that injured five people Saturday.

This happened during the Madisonville Day event. The chief of police and the event's organizers gave updates during a press conference on Sunday.

“Everybody should be appalled by what happened yesterday, and everyone should be working towards a solution to bringing justice to those who were shot,” said Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge.

On Saturday around 6:30 pm, officers responded to Bramble Park for reports of a shooting.

Lt. Jonathan Cunningham said in a statement Sunday that four of the victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries, but one person is in critical condition.

According to Lt. Cunningham, the victims' ages range between 24 and 46.

Chief Theetge says they're in the early stages of the investigation, but they believe there were multiple shooters and it doesn't look like they were at the park for the event.

“What is extremely unfortunate is it occurred in one of our city parks in broad daylight while these fine people were trying to have an event for the residents and kids of Madisonville, it's unacceptable,” Theetge said. “It's unacceptable to have something like this in our city limits.”

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Organizers described the event as a family reunion.

“Everybody smiling, kids having fun, everyone hugging, just excited just to see we have great things in Madisonville,” said Madisonville Day organizer Damir Gooch.

The organizers say they grew up in the area and they wanted to show the youth positive things happening in their community.

“There's hope out here still, not just bad things happen, [we are] giving them a lot of what we weren’t fortunate to get,” Gooch explained.

Gooch is Madisonville Day's head organizer and he says he is devastated about the shooting.

“Sad seeing kids on the ground crying,” he says. “That made everything feel like… really just break your heart.”

There was no police presence at the park before the shooting happened.

When asked if police should be at every large event like this, Chief Theetge said it's not plausible.

“This problem is not going to be solved by police alone,” Chief Theetge said. “Our police are understaffed and extremely tired now, and the summer has just begun.”

Chief Theetge says despite what happened Saturday, Cincinnati need to continue to have events like this for kids and teens.

“All I asked [is] all 52 neighborhoods continue to do programming for youth, continue to engage, get volunteers involved because we don't have enough officers to cover every event that we wish people would have in the city,” she added.

Anyone with information to help the investigation is asked to call CRIME STOPPERS at 513-352-3040.

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