Authorities are searching for any suspects who may still be on the loose.
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Club Blu posted on Facebook this morning that the event – for ages 12 to 17 – had ended and teens were leaving when the shooting happened. One hospital reported having received an injured reveller as young as 12 years old.
Emergency medical crews took the injured to local hospitals, where police found more victims, who had arrived on their own.
Police are reporting that the scene is still very active at this point as investigators and crime scene personnel attempt to determine what had occured and a possible motive for the incident.
The three young men were arrested after fleeing the scene in two vehicles and were charged in connection to that pursuit, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted on Facebook. Drew Mikulaschek said he’d never dealt with a situation like Monday’s mass shooting. Two were in critical condition and two in fair condition, said Lisa Sgarlata, the chief administrative officer at Lee Memorial Health System.
Two teens, 14-year-old Sean Archilles and 18-year-old Sef’an Strawder, were killed.
The attack occurred just 43 days after a gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 others at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. The club posted a status on Facebook shortly after the shooting criticizing commenters for speculating about the attack, before replacing the status with another expressing sadness for the victims and asserting that the event had had armed security.
Evidence markers are placed on the street at the scene of a deadly shooting outside of the Club Blu nightclub, Monday, July 25, 2016, in Fort Myers, Fla.
After the shots were fired, Strawder was hit and taken to Lee Memorial Hospital where he later died while being treated for his injuries.
No other details were immediately available.
“As the club was closing and parents were picking their children up. that’s when all this happened”, Club Blu said in a statement.
The records also show a formal complaint was filed 2014 for “criminal activity” and the club was given an official notice, according to the AP. “There was nothing more we could [have] done as you see it was not kids at the party that did this despicable act”.
“I don’t know like what a 14-year-old can do to someone”, Jean Archilles said, telling the news site that he did not know why the shooting started.
Officials say two people have been killed and at least 16 wounded in a shooting outside a nightclub in Florida.
Several hours later a street in the area remained closed as police investigated.
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We requested documents from Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation and they outline the history of the club and the problems surrounding it. “Investigators are working very hard to determine a motive and answer numerous questions you have submitted”.
