Shootings two hours apart leave 14 injured as Miami’s violent 2020 bleeds into New Year
On Sunday night, 14 people were shot in two incidents separated by only two hours and four miles. All the victims, including four juveniles, are expected to survive. The shootings, though unrelated, had a number of striking similarities.
In both instances, the shooter or shooters showed up after a group had gathered and sprayed the crowd with gunfire. Most of the victims were relatively young males. More than 140 rounds were fired in the two shootings in Miami and Northwest Miami-Dade. No suspects have been named in either case. And if police believe they have a motive for either shooting, they’re not sharing it publicly.
Significantly, the brazen gunfire that trended upward during a tumultuous 2020 and led to an increase in murders, bled into the New Year without pause. There was also no lack of disgust and anger from Miami-Dade County leaders.
“I am outraged by another act of senseless violence against innocent young people....”Tweeted newly-installed Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “This type of gun violence is unacceptable in our community and as Mayor, I am prioritizing changes to how we work with our youth to help prevent it.”
On the same social media platform, Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez called it another tragic shooting.
“This type of gun violence has to end,” the director said.
The first shooting happened just after 7 p.m. at a popular basketball court in West Little River. Like most Sunday evenings, dozens of teens and young adults had gathered at Little River Park to play ball, watch or just mingle. The park, at 10525 NW 24th Ave. has a modest basketball complex with four hoops and four small adjacent bleachers. It’s set behind a small recreation center and adjacent to a grassy ball field.
Without warning, according to police, two males showed up and began firing “indiscriminately,” into the crowd, then ran off. At least 100 rounds were fired. When the shooting stopped, eight people were injured, all male. Three were teens, ages 16, 17 and 18. The other five injured were between the ages of 21 and 27, police said. Seven were transported to area hospitals and the eighth was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
All eight, some with injuries more severe than others, are expected to survive, police said. On Monday morning, the park was eerily quiet with only one park employee in sight. The basketball court and the field were empty. A lone bicycle sat chained to a tree almost underneath one of the basketball hoops.
Gabriella Mayers, 52, who lives directly across the street from the basketball courts, said her electronic surveillance system didn’t activate during the shooting, but she heard the ruckus from inside the home. When she ran outside, briefly, she saw people running in every direction. She said the park usually fills up Sunday night.
Mayers, who has lived there for four years, said there have been few problems in the residential neighborhood just a few blocks from Henry Reeves Elementary School. Within a few minutes of the gunfire, Mayer said, a police helicopter with a large searchlight was scouring the neighborhood for the shooters.
“We came out after all the shots. We heard them from inside,” she said. “Kids in the park were running. We took a quick look and ran back inside.”
Only two hours after the Little River gunfire, Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood was filled with a barrage of gunfire left six people shot, several of them teenagers, according to a law enforcement source. Police believe the victims were targeted. The gunman fired at least 40 rounds. Two victims were treated on scene and the other four were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital. All are expected to survive.
“It’s almost a miracle,” said one officer. “They were shot in the arms and legs, mostly.”
Miami police said they were alerted to the incident at Northwest 25th Avenue and 37th Street just after 9 p.m., when ShotSpotter, an electronic device that picks up gunfire sounds, recorded dozens of blasts. When police got there, five males, most or all of them teens, according to police, were injured. The shooter, who has not been identified, was long gone.
The teens who all arrived together by car, had come to buy sandwiches at a popular Dominican food truck known for its chimi sandwiches, sauce-dripping burgers made popular by street stands in the Dominican Republic. Apparently, the shooter was tailing the car carrying the teens.
“They were the targets,” said a law enforcement source.
Sunday’s two incidents continued a troubling trend that saw shootings and murders soar in Miami-Dade in 2020, a year marked by an unrelenting pandemic and social unrest. Last year, after Miami and the rest of Miami-Dade experienced several years of historically low homicide numbers, an unusually high number of young teens and children shot and killed.
Through Christmas there were 272 recorded homicides throughout the entire county, up 31 from 2019, according to police records. Police and crime analysts have attributed the rise in violent crime to several factors, like the pandemic limiting community policing and causing cutbacks on positive interaction between police and the public. Gun sales have also increased, people are stuck at home and frustrated and many kids are not back in school.
