Police in Hollywood, Florida said that two people have been arrested, while three suspects are still being sought in connection with Monday’s mass shooting on the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk in Hollywood, Florida that left nine people including several children hospitalized. Hollywood Police have not released the identities of the injured, but said four of the nine victims are minors ranging in ages from 1 to 17, and the 5 adults are between the ages of 25 – 65. All of the victims were taken to either Memorial Regional Hospital or Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital; as of Tuesday morning, three adults had been treated and released from the hospital, while the other victims were in stable condition.
The shooting on Memorial Day happened shortly before 7 p.m. near Johnson Street, as the Broadwalk was crowded with Memorial Day beachgoers. Police said the incident started with an altercation between two groups of people that resulted in gunfire, and video from the city of Hollywood’s live feed of Hollywood Beach show people running or seeking cover when the gunshots were fired. What appears to be two guns can also be seen on the ground in the video. Officers responded and detained multiple people at or near the scene.
Police said Tuesday that while the people detained weren’t identified as the shooters, two were arrested on firearms charges; five handguns had been recovered, police said. Two of the handguns had been reported stolen, including one from Miami-Dade and one from Texas. Officials also released photos of three people who they believe were involved in the shooting, and are asking for the public’s help in identifying them. At a news conference Tuesday, Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy was the two people arrested were not from Hollywood but were from elsewhere in South Florida. Said Levy: “I’m very confident that we will apprehend those three persons. When you do something like this in broad daylight, with CCTV cameras up and down our Broadwalk, you will be identified and you will be caught and brought to justice. We’re not gonna tolerate this kind of behavior in a beautiful beach setting. We’re a very peaceful city and we will not tolerate people coming into our city and behaving in this way with no regard to people that are in harm’s way with iinocent bystanders injured like they were yesterday.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Hollywood Police Department at 954-764-4357(HELP) or 954-967-4567.
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