A 20-year-old man was killed and five other people were injured just before midnight on Saturday at “ZombiCon,” an undead-themed art and music festival in Fort Myers, Florida. As of Sunday night, the shooter was still at large. The event is billed as Florida’s “largest gathering of zombies and those who love them.”
News reports from the pre-Halloween street party—which draws costumed crowds of up to 20,000 and was this year celebrating a pretty rad-sounding “Fallout: 1985” theme—described an understandably chaotic scene, including this from CNN:
Crowds of festivalgoers fled screaming through the streets after the shots rang out late Saturday at ZombiCon.
“It cleared out fast and cop cars and ambulances came,” said Savannah Holden, who watched the panic unfold from a hotel balcony.
One man died of a gunshot wound at the scene, police said, and five other people suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Four of them were taken to Lee Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Multiple outlets identified the victim as Expavious Tyrell Taylor, a student at ASA College in Miami. He was apparently a random victim, according to Fort Meyers mayor Randall Henderson.
The producers of ZombiCon have messages on both the event’s website and Facebook page urging any witnesses to come forward; police are reviewing security camera footage taken from a bar across the street from the fatal shooting.
[H/T Slate]
Top image by Jeff Nelson from the ZombiCon Facebook page.