(AP) – Two victims died after five people were shot during an altercation at a late-night cockfight Friday in Honolulu, police said.

Honolulu police responded to a call about shots fired just past midnight Friday and were searching Saturday for a suspect believed to be in his 20s who allegedly shot the others who were attending the event, KHON-TV reported.

“At the end of the fight a group of males started arguing and then it escalated to a physical altercation, at some point gun shots were fired hitting the five people who were in the immediate area,” Honolulu Police Department Lt. Deena Thoemmes told KHON.

Police said a 59-year-old woman and a 34-year-old male were pronounced dead after arriving at a hospital, KHON reported.

Three men aged 38, 40 and 57 sustained gunshot wounds but were treated and released from a hospital, KHON reported.

Police said the circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear.

“I don’t understand the circumstances from this, it could have stemmed from something totally different and they just happened to be in the same area at the same time,” Thoemmes told KHON.

Honolulu city officials did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking additional information.

Cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states but continues in some, including Hawaii, where fights sometimes draw hundreds of people.

 

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