A shooting near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, left at least 12 people wounded on Saturday afternoon, with two in critical condition, authorities said. The gunfire broke out at around 5:30 p.m. local time near the Old West End Festival, sending crowds scrambling for cover and prompting an active search for suspects that was still ongoing Saturday evening.

Toledo's Deputy Police Chief Joe Heffernan said it appeared that at least two people had been firing weapons and were "probably shooting at each other." Victims ranged in age from 14 to 61, with most in their twenties. The city's public safety director, George Kral, appealed to the public for mobile phone footage that could help identify those responsible, while investigators reviewed surveillance camera footage and pursued other leads.

Eyewitnesses described scenes of sudden panic. Kevin Berry, who has medical training and previously served in the U.S. Navy, said he was sitting in the neighbourhood arboretum listening to live music with friends when he heard gunshots ring out. "Everybody hit the deck," he said. When he looked up, he saw a gun tossed to the ground less than 15 metres away. Berry then walked through the festival area looking for injured people and said he saw at least five individuals with gunshot wounds. Other festivalgoers described the scene as "total chaos."

The Old West End Festival is an annual two-day event held in Toledo's historic district, which is known for one of the largest surviving concentrations of late-Victorian architecture in the United States. The festival features live music, food vendors, home tours and shopping, and is regarded as the traditional kick-off to Toledo's summer festival season. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine expressed alarm at the violence, stating: "Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence."

The shooting adds to a broader pattern of gun violence in the United States. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which counts any incident with four or more people shot — excluding the shooter — as a mass shooting, there had been 171 such episodes recorded in the country in 2026 up to this point. No arrests had been made as of Saturday evening, and police said the investigation remained active.