Man dressed as Santa Claus shoots 4 at Halloween party

AUSTIN, Texas -- Police say a man in a Santa Claus suit shot four people at a Halloween party in Austin, Texas, this weekend.

Police rushed to a house and found those four people wounded. Two of the victims were taken to the hospital in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. A third person was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and the fourth person was treated at the scene.

Police later arrested the suspect at a different house just down the block from the shooting, still wearing the Santa suit. They say he knew the people he allegedly shot.

Police have not said what charges the shooter may face.

"I've been on this block for about 12 years now," said neighbor Tim Kaupas, who was one of the attendees at the party.

He says the woman who threw the party -- a close friend -- was one of the victims.

"It was a good party. She always has good parties. There's never anybody aggressive that comes over. Like I said, she was a victim of gun violence. It was very unnecessary," Kaupas said.

Kaupas says he spoke with the shooter earlier that night and had no idea something like this might happen.

"He's always been very cordial to us. He's always been very stable to us. I don't want to be like that person who says I never saw it coming, but you know, like I said, he never showed any signs to me," he said.

He says, luckily for him, he left hours before the shooting started.

Another neighbor says he heard yelling before gunshots rang out.

"I heard like a loud belligerent male voice. It sounded like he was kind of angry and talking a little bit of smack," the neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said.

The neighbor said he nearly got involved in the confrontation.

"I was hoping that, like, he didn't do anything in my yard, I was maybe thinking that I would have to come out," he said.