Two people died and more than 20 were injured in a shooting in front of a club in Hialeah, a city northeast of Miami in Florida, and whose population is predominantly Latino
“I am at the scene of another cowardly and selective act of gun violence, where more than 20 victims were shot and two sadly died,” Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramírez III said in a tweet; it was a “cowardly and selective act” of armed violence, he added.
This is the second mass shooting in less than 24 hours in Florida, kicking off in the worst way a summer that police forecast “violent.”
A white Nissan Pathfinder pulled up at the scene and three people came out with assault weapons and pistols and began firing at the crowd that had gathered for a rap concert at the scene, CNN reported.
CNN said that between 20 and 25 of the injured were taken to several nearby hospitals.
The shooting took place early Sunday morning, CBS4 Miami said, adding that at least one of the injured was in critical condition. CBS4 Miami said police had not had anyone in custody since early Sunday morning.
The Florida mass shooting is one of those that have taken place in recent weeks in the United States. There were at least 200 mass shootings in the country in the first 132 days of this year, according to a report by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group.
Violent summer
“This type of attack must end, every weekend it is the same,” Ramírez said at a press conference, insisting that it was not something “random.”
The officer said it is “disheartening”, but this is a “trend” that is being experienced throughout the country and that a “violent summer” is foreseeable.
Precisely this long weekend for the Memorial Day holiday, which is celebrated this Monday in the United States, is the unofficial start of summer in the country and local authorities had reinforced security measures in anticipation of possible incidents, although on these dates they are often caused by visitors
However, in this case it seems that they are local, since the Hialeah banquet hall, far from the tourist area, had been rented to celebrate the release of an album at a party that included several performances by rap groups from the area, the Sun Sentinel newspaper reported.
This morning, one of the fatalities was still at the scene, apparently a man whose body was partially covered with a yellow cloth that revealed his red sports shoes.
The two deceased were pronounced dead at the scene, while more than a dozen of the injured made their way to hospitals under their own power, while eight more were transported by medical teams.
Fifty people gathered at Jackson Memorial Hospital to find out about the health of those close to them and, holding hands, formed a circle to pray at the doors of the medical center.
Angelica Green, the mother of one of the wounded, told Local 10 that her son called them and told them that they had shot him in the stomach and that the suspects arrived “wearing ski masks and hooded sweatshirts, and started shooting into the crowd. “.
Second shooting in 24 hours
The police are investigating who may have committed the attack and have asked the population for help to solve the second mass shooting they have faced in 24 hours, after at midnight from Friday to Saturday one person died and six others were injured in a incident that occurred in the touristy Miami neighborhood of Wynwood.
Entrepreneur and television host Marcus Lemonis offered a $ 100,000 reward for anyone who helps authorities in his hometown arrest suspects in this early morning shooting.
As in the case of Hialeah, the police have called for help and are tracking the vehicle used in the Wynwood attack, where thousands of people gather every weekend to enjoy the popular art galleries and restaurants.
A local police officer described the scene of the shooting as a “war zone,” according to the Miami Herald newspaper, while a witness said he heard about 60 shots and saw people fleeing in terror.
More and more weapons
This Sunday, The New York Times published preliminary data from a study that ensures that the sale of firearms in the United States, which soared last year as a result of the start of the coronavirus pandemic, continues to grow, with a fifth of purchases made by people who are new owners.
The figures, compiled by Northeastern University and a Harvard research center, indicate that there are more and more weapons in circulation, but also more and more armed people.
If on May 23 three people died in an attack in a bar in Youngstown, in the state of Ohio, three days later another mass shooting left a balance of nine dead in San José (California), in a spiral of violence that It has been registered in the US since the restrictions due to the pandemic began to be lifted.
Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo said on Twitter today that gun attacks are a “public health epidemic” in the country and that society must mobilize so that the situation does not worsen.
To avoid this, he opted for tougher penalties for people who carry and use weapons when they are prohibited from doing so, because, in his opinion, these “cowards” are not “afraid of death, but they are afraid of long prison terms.”
With information from EFE and Reuters.
