NATCHEZ — Easter Sunday took an abrupt turn when a Miller Avenue house filled with occupants, including small children, suddenly became the target of a barrage of bullets. No one was injured.

Just before noon Sunday, police received a call of a drive-by shooting in the 2800 block of Miller Avenue, with multiple shots going into the house as well as into a vehicle in front of the residence, Natchez Police Chief Walter Armstrong said.

Though Armstrong said the bullets did not strike anybody, police must work expeditiously to capture the shooter or shooters.

“We desperately need this person off the streets,” Armstrong said.

Police began interviewing multiple eyewitnesses to the incident a few hours after the incident, but Armstrong said police did not know the identity of the shooter as of 2 p.m. Sunday.

What they had learned, Armstrong said, is that the shooter(s) possibly targeted a visitor of the house. The visitor had supposedly been involved in some type of altercation the night before, though Armstrong said whether that altercation was verbal or physical remains unclear.

Armstrong said investigators are looking into the possibility that the other individual involved in the feud could be the shooter.

The chief did not know the exact number of shots fired, but he said multiple shots went into the house and that the approximately seven occupants — including some extremely young children — were fortunate to come away from the incident unscathed.

“We’re just glad nobody got hurt,” Armstrong said. “It’s hard to imagine someone would be that foolish to fire a gun into an occupied dwelling where you had multiple individuals in there and any of them could have been struck. Multiple of them could have been struck.”

Armstrong encourages anyone who might know anything about the case to contact the Natchez Police Department at 601-445-3554 or contact Crime Stoppers at 601-442-5000. Crime Stoppers offers monetary rewards for anonymous tips that lead directly to the arrest and conviction of a suspect.