UPDATED @ 4:45pm:
Miami Herald's David Smiley tweets, "ok so who was shooting b4 the car even stopped” it's possible cops did all the shooting."UPDATED @ 4pm: Miami Herald's David Smiley tweets, "Still no gun found in #southbeach police shootout. Cops investigating accounts that passengers ran from car, and driver fires out window."
Miami Beach commissioner Jerry Libbin posts this on his Facebook page: "The mayhem on the streets of Miami Beach last night [leads] me to believe that the best solution for the safety of our residents and tourists for next year is to consider an imposed curfew. I will work with both residents and business owners to establish the appropriate guidelines, however, I will not stand by for another Memorial Day tragedy such as this weekend"
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Looks like the people who every year call for an end to Memorial Day weekend festivities on South Beach now have a stronger argument thanks to two shootings on South Beach Monday morning.
One of the shootings was videotaped by a man from an apartment window above the street. In the incredible video, a black car comes to a stop after firing shots at passersby. Police surround the car and after a brief standoff blast a number of rounds into the vehicle which can be heard at 1:13 on the video.
From CBS4:
The incident took place around 4:00 a.m. on Collins Avenue between 13th and 16th Streets. Police say there was a tense situation between some officers and a man driving a car when the man tried to hit officers with that moving car.From the Miami Herald:
The home video opens with the sound of four loud gunshots and a dark-colored vehicle zooming down the street before stopping at an intersection.
The man shooting the video tells a companion, “Stay right there, don’t come to the window,” as sirens and screams are heard from below. The man tries to explain to his female friend what was going on and he said “He was shooting people from inside the car.” About one minute into the video, at least a half dozen people, apparently police officers, approach the stopped car and a barrage of bullets rings out. One officer can be seen approaching the car shining a flashlight into the driver’s side window as the man on the video continues to say “Oh my Gosh.”
The man inside that car was killed.
“If you’re driving a vehicle and you aim that at someone and drive towards that person with the intent of causing injury, that’s deadly force,” said Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega.
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Two Miami Beach officers and one Hialeah officer were taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center with unknown injures.
Four bystanders who were wounded in the crossfire were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where witnesses talked about their frightening experience.
One witness from New York said, “The Miami Beach Police Department shot her. That was not right. There was a drive by going on. And the Miami Police shot her. It was by accident but they shot her.”
Another New York tourist described what happened. “We were just walking going to our hotel. We seen a drive by going by. We ducked down. The police came out with their guns. They were like this and they started shooting.”
Witness Jose Vazquez said it was chaos. “We were about to turn the corner when all the sudden we heard gun shots. Maybe about 5 to 12 gunshots. In the chaos we heard a girl got hit,” explained Vazquez. “Everyone was running. I was kind of scared. It was sporadic. Then you had more gunshots. It was kind of frightening. All the sudden the police started running with their guns drawn.”
Three police officers are in the hospital Monday after they emptied several rounds of bullets on a driver who opened fire on South Beach.From WSVN:
The driver was killed and four bystanders were injured.
Police said two shootings occurred on Collins Avenue, between 13th Street and 14th Street, and another occurred on Washington Avenue and 14th Street. Police said four gunshots rang in the latest shooting, which occurred at about 5:20 Monday morning. According to Miami Beach Police, large crowds of people celebrating Memorial Day weekend were in the street when the shots rang out.
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A witness at Jackson Memorial Hospital said her friend was injured when police opened fire on that vehicle. "We were just walking, going to our hotel. We saw a drive-by go by; we ducked down," said the unidentified woman. "The police came out with their guns and they started shooting. It was a drive-by going on and the Miami police shot her. It was by accident but they still shot her."
Witnesses said police also sprayed bystanders with Mace as they tried to determine the subjects responsible for the shootings.
Officials do not know what led up to the shootings.
