Holyoke shooting: Pregnant woman loses baby after being wounded in Massachusetts

Pregnant woman hit by gunfire while sitting in a public bus

Police outside a corner shop in Holyoke, Massachusetts. AP

A pregnant bystander was struck by gunfire during a shooting in a Massachusetts town that left her in critical condition while her baby died after being delivered at hospital.

The shooting occurred outside a market in Holyoke, a town with about 37,000 residents. The pregnant woman was shot while sitting in a public bus.

Police responded to the shooting at 12.38pm on Wednesday after three men were involved in an altercation. Holyoke Police Department said in an initial Facebook post that “operators received multiple calls for help”.

The shooting occurred at the intersection of Maple and Sargeant streets, police said. A manager of a nearby market told The New York Times that two people tried to jump the third suspect when he walked past a shop.

The three men then struggled over a gun and one of them fired three shots, the witness told the newspaper. He said that the shop's surveillance cameras recorded the incident and that he is co-operating with police.

All three suspects were identified and are in police custody, the District Attorney's office said. Neither their names nor the name of the woman shot were released.