UPDATE:

The Surfside Police Department is interviewing witnesses and looking for leads in the weekend shootings that left one dead and two injured, officials said.

Derrick Milam, 26, died on Saturday after being shot in the neck at the beach party that was widely advertised on social media. A 16-year-old and a 19-year-old were also shot and taken to the hospital. Their identities have not been released.

Investigators said between 15,000 and 20,000 people gathered on a stretch of beach for the party, which backed up traffic for miles between 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. The shooting happened between 8:30 and 9 p.m., Chief Gary Phillips said.

Phillips said it’s possible the shooting was a drive-by. He said the injured men told police that they were walking down the beach when they were hit.

“Nobody knows where the shots came from or anything,” Phillips said. “When the shooting took place, everyone scattered.”

He said the police did not discourage partying on the beach, but large events need a city permit. The group did not have a permit, Phillips said. The police department does not allow DJ equipment or PA systems on the beach. The party promoters advertised several DJs would be performing at the beach party.

“There was no way to contact them before they were coming down,” he said. “We told them they couldn’t set it up.”

No officers were on the beach at the time of the shooting, but several were in the area, handling parking and loitering complaints.

Earlier story:

A Surfside Beach party on Saturday night ended with chaos and gunshots, leaving one person dead, at least two people injured, and crowds running for cover.

A family member confirmed that Derrick Milam was hit by a stray bullet in the neck and died on the beach Saturday night during the party.

His step sister Danielle Banks, who attended the party, said the scene was chaotic. She said fights were breaking out spanning the whole beach at the time of the shooting. Cars were parked all along the sand and people were packed on the long stretch of the Gulf in swim suits, drinking and partying.

The Texas Beach Party (which reportedly expected a crowd of at least 3,000)was advertised widely on social media leading up to packed beach party Saturday night. Investigators told other media outlets that crowds reached between 15,000 to 20,000.

At the time of the shooting, Banks, 23, said crowds people passed nearby her, running and screaming that someone had been shot. She said she heard people say, “Dead, dead dead.”

She walked over, not knowing that the victim was her step brother.

“I saw his face, covered in blood and he was laying in a puddle of blood,” she said. “It was really chaotic…It’s still sinking in with me.”

Milam, who lived in Houston, had a fiance and a little boy, Zerrick. His mother and sisters also live in Houston and are traumatized by his death, Banks said. He graduated high school from Nimitz Senior High School in Houston.

” He was loving, fun, outgoing, charismatic and he was a good father,” Banks said.