12 Shot at a Toledo Festival. Two Are Critical. The Suspects Are Still Out There.

TOLEDO, Ohio, June 7, 2026 —

At least 12 people were shot Saturday evening near the Old West End Festival in Toledo, Ohio — an annual two-day community celebration of live music, home tours, and neighborhood history — when gunfire erupted in the crowd and sent hundreds of people scrambling. Two of the victims are in critical condition as of Sunday morning. No suspects are in custody.

Toledo police believe at least two people were shooting at each other. Every other person who was hit was in the way.

What Happened at 5:37 p.m.

The Old West End Festival is held each June in Toledo’s historic Old West End neighborhood, one of the city’s most architecturally distinctive districts and the official kickoff to the city’s summer festival season. By late Saturday afternoon, several hundred people had gathered along Delaware Avenue near Glenwood — a stretch lined with Victorian-era homes, food vendors, and live music stages — when the gunfire began.

Toledo police received the first call at 5:37 p.m. Within minutes, officers flooded the scene. What they found was chaotic: people running in every direction, some injured on the ground, emergency responders struggling to reach victims because of road closures and the volume of people fleeing.

Toledo Deputy Police Chief Joe Heffernan said at a press conference Saturday night that it appeared at least two individuals had opened fire, and that they were probably shooting at each other. The 12 people who were hit ranged in age from 14 to 61. None of them were the intended targets. Twelve people caught in the middle of someone else’s dispute, at a community festival, in the middle of the afternoon.

Two of the wounded remained in critical condition Sunday morning. Ten others had injuries described as non-life-threatening.

The Investigation — and the Ask for Cellphone Video

No suspects were in custody Saturday night or Sunday morning. Toledo police described the search as ongoing and said the investigation was being treated as a priority.

Police Lieutenant Dan Gerken told reporters that he had spoken to victims ranging in age from 14 to 61, and urged residents to speak to their children about what they might know. He added that there were several hundred people in the area when the shooting happened and that in his experience, that many people with phones produce usable footage. He held up his own phone to make the point. Toledo officials formally urged anyone who was at the festival with cellphone video to come forward through Crime Stoppers.

Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said in a statement that what happened at the Old West End Festival has sadly happened in too many American cities. He said the city would never accept gun violence as the price of living in a free society. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said he was deeply concerned and that summer festivals should be safe spaces for families.

The question of whether Sunday’s portion of the Old West End Festival would continue was still being discussed Saturday night between city officials and event organizers.

The Number That Puts Saturday in Context

CNN reported that the Toledo shooting is one of at least 170 mass shootings in the United States so far in 2026, according to the Gun Violence Archive — which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter. The country has crossed that threshold on average more than once per day this year.

The Old West End Festival is the kind of community event that defines a neighborhood. Victorian homes, historic architecture, neighbors gathering across generations. The shooting happened not inside the festival perimeter but near it — at the edges where the crowd and the street intersect. That is where 12 people learned Saturday evening that the geography of gun violence in America does not respect the boundaries of a festival.