Three people were shot, two of them fatally, following a funeral Saturday afternoon at a church in Riviera Beach, Florida, police said.
The shooting was reported just after 2:30 p.m. outside Victory City Church.
A 15-year-old boy and a man were pronounced dead at the scene. A woman was treated for a non-life threatening injuries, Riviera Beach police said in a press release.
The dead man was later identified as 47-year-old Royce Freeman. Police said they were not identifying the other victims.
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Authorities initially said there were four victims but later determined an injured boy who showed up at an area hospital after the attack was not connected to the funeral violence.
“This shooting was not a random act of violence,” police said in a late-night statement. “While the motive for the shooting is still being investigated, it is believed it was a result of a dispute between relatives of the deceased whose funeral had been held.”
The church’s senior pastor, Tywuante D. Lupoe, said in a video address posted on Facebook that the attack was “across” from the church and involved people who attended the funeral there.
“A fight broke out with the family and in the midst of that fight a shooting occurred, and unfortunately there was loss of life,” he said. “This was not a shooting that occurred inside the church.”
He said church officials were “very well aware of the potential of violence” and had armed security assigned to the event, but the violence broke out “once our security team left.”
In a previous Facebook statement he said the congregation was mourning the loss of “two young black men to a senseless shooting.”
So far, no arrests have been made.
Riviera Beach is about six miles north of Palm Beach.
