GEORGE, WA (CelebrityAccess) – An evening shooting at The Gorge Amphitheatre campground on Saturday (June 17) has left two victims dead and three people, including the shooter, injured, reports Grant County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kyle Foreman.
Festivalgoers were camped out to attend the Beyond Wonderland festival at The Gorge – a two-day, adults-only weekend featuring various electronic dance (EDM) artists when a gunman opened fire at a campground near the venue. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office said the alleged gunman randomly fired into a crowd of people at the campground at approximately 8:20 pm local time – “several hundred yards” away from the venue. “At about 8:20 pm or thereabouts, there was a shooting in the campground. The shooter was fleeing the scene and also firing shots,” Foreman said.
The amphitheater was hosting the first of the two-night fest and has several campgrounds around the venue, including one near the main entrance and a larger camp area less than half a mile away, where the shooting is believed to have occurred, reported KIR07.
After the report of shots fired, a mass notification was sent countywide via the Sheriff’s Office urging county residents to stay away from the scene and advising those present to “seek cover. Run, hide or fight (the) suspect.”
The Beyond Wonderland organizers sent a message out via Twitter to all attendees telling them to avoid the Gorge Gate H campground area as “it is closed due to an incident that local authorities have handled. There is no current danger to festivalgoers or the campgrounds.” The first day of the festival went on as scheduled.
The Sheriff’s office sent an update out to social media regarding the shooter in the early morning hours of Sunday (June 18), stating that information on the shooter’s identity and the shooting victims will not be available until the on-site investigation is complete, and the victim’s families have been notified. Information about the shooter will also not be available pending investigation.
Festival organizers sent out via social media this morning (June 18) that day 2 of the festival has been canceled “due to the incident that took place in the overflow camping area last night.”
— Beyond Wonderland at The Gorge (@BeyondWlandPNW) June 18, 2023
