2 die as gunman shoots 8 people at party near Greenville, authorities say

Updated at 10:15 a.m.: Revised to reflect the names of the victims who were fatally shot.

The parking lot outside the Party Venue near Greenville was littered Sunday with signs of the panic of the night before. Halloween masks people had cast away lay near blue medical gloves that dotted the ground. Nearby, a pool of blood had soaked into the gravel.

Sgt. Jeff Haines of the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office said even a brief glimpse inside the venue was worse.

“Horrific,” he said, describing what he’d seen while authorities searched where a gunman shot eight people at a crowded party as nearby Texas A&M University-Commerce celebrated homecoming weekend. Two of the victims died, and four more were in critical condition late Sunday.

Hunt County authorities on Monday identified the two victims who were fatally shot. One was 23-year-old Kevin Berry Jr. of Dallas and Byron Craven, also 23, of Arlington, authorities said.

He described the eerie scene of the debris left behind — a lost hat, a shoe lying outside the door — as the frightened crowd of about 750 fled. Some were so frantic they cut themselves on broken glass scrambling to escape through windows.

Graphic video posted online immediately after the shooting showed terribly injured victims as people screamed in the background.

“It’s horrific to think about what was going through the minds of the people there,” Haines said.

The chaos that began about midnight Saturday was reflected in the uncertainty of the next day as officials’ accounting of the number of people who’d been shot wavered.

Initial accounts had suggested the gunman was armed with a semiautomatic rifle, but Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks confirmed the weapon was a handgun.

And authorities said they still hadn’t identified a suspect, despite the hundreds of potential witnesses around him when he began firing at the venue along U.S. Highway 380.

Saturday night’s party, attended mostly by people in their teens and early 20s, had been promoted as a homecoming event but wasn’t university-sanctioned.

Texas A&M-Commerce confirmed that four of its students had been treated and released from hospitals.

The first person the gunman shot may have been his intended target and the rest of the victims may have been fired upon randomly, the sheriff said.

“The amount of people that were there, the overcrowdedness of it — it gave the opportunity for this shooter to be able to accomplish whatever he wanted to accomplish,” Meeks said. “When you have this many people in one place, it’s an easy target for somebody.”

The shooting took place about 15 miles southwest of the Commerce campus, which is about 65 miles from Dallas.

A “Twerk or Treat” costume party had been promoted for Saturday night at the venue, which is described as an 8,000-square-foot facility with a capacity of 500 — well below the estimated attendance at the event.

Hunt County deputies who were investigating complaints about illegal parking at the venue arrived about 20 minutes before the gunman opened fire.

They were questioning a person outside the front of the venue who they believed was intoxicated when they heard gunshots coming from the back of the building.

At first, they could not tell whether the shots were fired inside or outside but found the two men who had been killed when they entered the building, authorities said.

An off-duty Farmersville ISD police officer also had been at the venue working security at the party.

The sheriff said the party became “complete chaos” as people tried to flee the gunman, with some breaking through windows and others trying to squeeze through the venue’s front door four abreast. Six people suffered cuts and bruises while they were trying to escape.

The gunman fled during the commotion, and witnesses had not given authorities a detailed description of him or any suspect vehicle.

“It appalls me that, as many folks that were there, [they] have not been able to give us a better description of the shooter,” Meeks said.

The sheriff pleaded with partygoers to provide any information they could about the gunman.

“We need to get him off the street as soon as possible, and we have very, very little to go on right now," he said.

According to Meeks, a sheriff’s sergeant quickly determined that one person who had been shot had life-threatening injuries and rushed that victim to a hospital in his patrol vehicle. Another deputy at the scene performed triage.

“I believe their actions may have saved lives," he said.

Meeks said that in his 44 years of law enforcement experience, this is the first time he’s encountered “something of this magnitude.”

“I think anything like this is gonna be something very hard to deal with; it’s not something that we deal with every day,” he said.

Medical City Plano Hospital was treating four victims Sunday night, two in critical condition and two in good condition. Another critically wounded person was being treated at a Denton hospital.

Friends and relatives of Berry had a vigil in Pleasant Grove to mark his death Sunday evening.

His sister, Nakeya Berry, called her brother’s death senseless.

“My family is torn apart,” she said tearfully before she was overcome by emotion.

Dozens of people held blue and white balloons and wept as they embraced.

Berry’s uncle Cloyse Caruthers Jr. said his nephew wasn’t a student at Texas A&M-Commerce but had gone to the party to spend time with friends.

“I’m more angry than anything. This [expletive] is happening everywhere,” he said. “What were they thinking involving innocent people in this mess? He had so much promise.”

As the vigil ended, gunfire erupted and mourners and the reporters interviewing them ran for cover. There were no reports of injuries, but KXAS-TV (NBC5) reported that its news vehicle was struck several times as dozens of shots could be heard. It was unclear what precipitated the gunfire.

Sunday afternoon, police tape blocked off the venue, which is just west of Greenville’s city limits. The Hunt County Sheriff’s Office had set up a mobile command post, and several media crews were at the scene with authorities from local, state and federal agencies.

The FBI and the Texas Rangers are helping with the investigation.

“This is a pretty big case, and we’re a small law enforcement agency,” Meeks said.

Ethan Derek Preas, director of campus operations and safety at Texas A&M-Commerce, said in an email that the event where the shooting was reported was not sponsored by the university.

The shooting took place just minutes before Houston-based hip-hop artist BeatKing was scheduled to perform at the party.

The rapper tweeted early Sunday that seeing video of the shooting “makes my heart drop.”

On Sunday afternoon, Kimberly Wilson stopped by the venue to pick up her 19-year-old daughter’s car, which had been abandoned overnight.

Wilson’s daughter doesn’t attend Texas A&M-Commerce but knows students there, which is how she heard about the party. Her daughter was unharmed, and Wilson picked her up after the teenager’s car got stuck in mud near the venue.

“I think that youths, young people don’t have a fair chance in starting their lives,” Wilson said when asked about her reaction to the shooting.

She said she had been to parties growing up where people would shoot into the air to send people running, but this is different.

“This is ‘I’m coming in, aiming at somebody to take somebody out,’” she said. “You’ve got all this mayhem going on. This is ridiculous.”

Other people were reluctant to speak at the venue Sunday — a problem law enforcement officials say has impeded the investigation.

Haines, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said he’s not sure whether witnesses are afraid to cooperate but he pleaded for people with information to come forward and help bring the gunman to justice.

“We need your help," he said. “We don’t know what the motive of this individual was. We don’t know why this individual did what they did and we don’t know if they plan on doing it again.”

He urged people to speak up, even if they have an aversion to working with law enforcement.

“Have some dignity and respect for those that lost their lives just coming to a party last night,” he said.

Anyone with information about the shooting may call the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office at 903-453-6800 or Crime Stoppers at 903-457-2929.

Staff writer Eva-Marie Ayala contributed to this report.