Flowers and stuffed animals are left at the scene of a deadly shooting outside the Club Blu nightclub in Fort Myers, Fla., Monday, July 25, 2016.
Advertisement
Two people are dead and possibly as many as 17 others were wounded in a shooting at a Florida nightclub that was holding a party for teenagers. Two teens were were killed, police said, and almost 20 others were injured. “We have three persons of interest in custody – I’m not going to go into who they are – and we are still looking for others”. The shooting came six weeks after amassacre at a nightclub in the Florida city of Orlando, where a lone gunman who sympathised with Islamist extremist groups killed 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in United States history.
Lee Memorial Health System said in a statement Monday afternoon that two people at the hospital are still in critical condition and one is in fair condition.
Police have not determined a motive but said this was not an act of terrorism. “He’s always joking”, Jean Archilles said.
The shooting took place shortly after 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT) on Monday in the parking lot of Club Blu, which was hosting an event open to teenagers, the Fort Myers Police Department said.
The shooting at a venue tucked in a strip mall also left 14-year-old Sean Archilles dead, and a state and its governor grappling with another tragedy.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced he was heading to Fort Myers to meet with officials there. Three additional people have been detained for questioning. The shooting happened just as the club was closing and parents were arriving to pick up their children.
In a video interview, Syreeta Gary said her daughter and a friend ran for cover.
Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers treated 16 people for injuries related to the shooting, ranging in age from 12 to 27.
Friends of Archilles were also shot during the incident, and Strawder’s 19-year-old sister, Sharrelle, was shot in the leg. Members of the community are already coming together to pay tribute to the boys who were killed. She says the parties are something positive for a rough and often-violent neighborhood.
Her group hid under a auto, she said, and at one point, they started running. We are not releasing his name as authorities have not yet released victim names.
The shootings happened less than a half mile from the scene of the mass shooting at the nightclub in the 2500 block of Parkway Street, police said. “I believe that those matters will be looked into”, he said.
Department of Business and Professional Regulation records show two separate shootings occurred just outside the club on the same night in May 2015.
Advertisement
The Club Blu management posted on Facebook that they are “deeply sorry for all involved”, adding that “we tried to give the teens what we thought was a safe place to have a good time”. The post from the Fort Myers nightclub says armed security had been posted at the event inside and outside.
