LA mansion shooting: Three in critical condition after hundreds attend Mulholland Drive party

Police had earlier been called to party reportedly thrown by NFL player

Three people have been critically injured in a shooting at a mansion party attended by hundreds of people in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) said one of the victims, all adults, was in a “grave condition” following the violence in Mulholland Drive early in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Police had earlier been called to reports of a large party taking place in breach of coronavirus laws at a rented mansion in the wealthy neighbourhood of Beverly Crest.

A security guard working at the party said it was being thrown for an unidentified NFL player, CBS Los Angeles reported.

The three shooting victims have all been taken to hospital. It was not immediately clear who had opened fire.

Footage posted on Instagram by man who said he was at the party showed chaos breaking out as dozens of shots are heard. Partygoers shout and scream as they run and hide, some sheltering in cars, before police officers arrive.

LAFD said a fourth person suffered a wrist injury, not inflicted by a gun, while fleeing the scene.

The man who posted the Instagram video claimed the shooting started after “a lot of big ballers were gambling” and “lost a lot of money”.

“A bunch of gangsters came in and robbed everybody and started shooting everybody,” he wrote online. “I ran for my life it was crazy.”

Despite a ban on large gatherings in California, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) had earlier said its officers could not enter to break up the party without a warrant as it was not enforcing local heath regulations.

Local media reported most attendees of the party were not social distancing or wearing masks.

Several hundred people were said to be at the mansion, which had a food van in its drive and a DJ by the swimming pool.

Kennie Leggett, who said he was overseeing security at the party, told CBS: “We have money. We are people. This Covid, I mean, is just pushing us out everywhere, and we have nothing, so the only thing we do have is Airbnbs to rent swimming pools for our kids, to do big things and things of that nature.”

He said he had been told to stay until 3am local time (10am GMT), when the party was expected to end.