Mass shooting on Talbot Avenue this morning, but police say it had nothing to do with Carnival

Update: One of the victims was also one of the shooters police say.

Eight people were shot on Talbot Avenue near Blue Hill Avenue around 7:45 a.m. as the Jouvert parade, part of the day's Carnival celebration, was passing by.

WriteHandMan reports: "Sounded like 15 to 18 shots then chaos."

The rest of the day's Carnival's events will go on as planned, officials said.

At an early afternoon press conference on Martin Luther King Boulevard, Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the shootings apparently stemmed from a beef between two groups who had nothing to do with Carnival.

He said all of the victims were taking to local hospitals with injuries not considered life threatening. Two people were arrested. He said officers, already stationed along the Jouvert route, rushed towards the gunfire and applied tourniquets to the victims who needed them.

Police later found an eighth victim.

Cox declined to get specific about what led to the shootings, because they remain under investigation.

Mayor Wu, who also spoke at the press conference, called it "heartwrenching" that Carnival would be tagged with this morning's violence. "There's absolutely no excuse for something open to the community and part of Boston's culture and heritage to be talked about this way," she said. "We're going to have a great rest of the day."

She said Boston's Carnival, in its 50th year this year, is one of the largest in the world and a key part of Boston culture.

Like Wu, Shirley Shillingford, a Carnival organizer, said the violence had nothing to do with Carnival. "Kudos to my Boston police, especially to B-3," she said.