A shooting outside a Florida concert left 23 people shot and 2 dead. Here’s what we know
At least 23 people were shot and two were killed Sunday when three men got out of a vehicle and began firing into a crowd outside a concert venue in southern Florida, police said.
The incident stemmed from an ongoing rivalry between two different groups, Miami-Dade Homicide Bureau Maj. Jorge Aguiar said Monday. The intended target was believed to have been standing in front of the concert venue when the shooting began, he said.
Police have not detailed the identities of the shooters or victims in what is one of the largest mass shootings in Miami-Dade County’s history. There have been 41 homicides in the county this year as of May 23, the same amount as at this point in 2020, according to Miami-Dade Police Department data.
Here’s what we know about the shooting:
Shooters fired into a crowd
Shortly after midnight Sunday, a white Nissan Pathfinder pulled up to the El Mula Banquet Hall near Hialeah, police director Alfredo Ramirez III said.
That’s when three people “stepped out of the vehicle with assault rifles and handguns and started firing indiscriminately into the crowd,” Ramirez said.
Several others in the parking lot then armed themselves and opened fire toward the initial shooters, Aguiar said. The end result was an extensive crime scene with two dead and 23 people wounded, including three with critical injuries, Aguiar said.
Ramirez said Sunday the shooting at the club was “targeted” and was “definitely not random.”
The white Nissan Pathfinder had been waiting in the parking lot for 20-40 minutes before the shooting, he said Monday.
TV personality and Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the mass shooting, the businessman tweeted Sunday.
Ramirez tweeted later that the Miami division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had added an additional $25,000 to Lemonis’ reward, bringing it to $125,000.
Shooting leaves two in critical condition
The wounded were taken to various hospitals in the area.
Five victims were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. Two of them are in critical condition, according to hospital spokesperson Kerting Baldwin.
The banquet hall and billiards club had been rented out for a concert Saturday night, Ramirez said.
A Facebook page for the establishment shows it hosts parties and happy hour events as well.
Aguiar called this weekend’s shooting a senseless act of violence.
“For you guys out there — if you are watching this and you are responsible for this — look at those victims that you don’t take into account, those victims are hurting, they’re destroyed, their lives are turned upside down,” he said.
