A SHOOTING outside a restaurant in the US city of Buffalo early yesterday left four people dead and four wounded, police said.
The victims were leaving a party inside the City Grill bar and restaurant at about 2:30am when gunfire erupted, police and witnesses said. Police were investigating reports that an argument may have broken out inside. It is not known how many shooters there were.
"We're trying to sort all of that out," homicide chief Dennis Richards said. "We're checking to see if something precipitated this from inside."
Three victims were pronounced dead at the scene in the city's business district and a fourth died at a hospital. The dead included two men and two women, Richards said.
Raymond Wilhite returned to the restaurant a few hours after the shooting and said his 32-year-old daughter, Tiffany Wilhite, was among the victims.
The wounded were all men. Spokesmen at Erie County Medical Center and Buffalo General Hospital confirmed some of the wounded were brought in but declined to release their conditions.
Tommy Dates, 35, of Buffalo, said he was in the bar area of the restaurant with his friends when he noticed a party had broken up. He said people started leaving the restaurant but rushed back inside a few minutes later.
"A lot of people were real upset, just trying to get out of the way," Dates said. "Everyone was in a panic."
Three covered bodies lay in front of the restaurant for several hours, one of them on the sidewalk across the street.

• restaurant [´restərɔnt] n.饭店，菜馆 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• argument [´ɑ:gjumənt] n.辩论；争论；论证 (初中英语单词)
• medical [´medikəl] a.医学的；医疗的 (初中英语单词)
• release [ri´li:s] vt&n.释放；放松；赦免 (初中英语单词)
• buffalo [´bʌfələu] n.水牛；野牛 (高中英语单词)
• pronounced [prə´naunst] a.发出音的；显著的 (高中英语单词)
• sidewalk [´saidwɔ:k] n.人行道 (高中英语单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)