A shooting at a graduation party has left at least three people dead andsix others injured, the latest in a string of shootings in the Miami area, police said Sunday.
The party had just ended at a strip mall parking lot just south of Miami-Dade College around 2 a.m. Sunday. One or more vehicles “pulled up and began to fire into the crowd," Miami-Dade police Director Alfredo "Freddie" Ramirez said at a news conference.
The identities of those killed and wounded were not immediately released Sunday. Two were deceased at the scene, and another died at the hospital, Ramirez said.
The person who died at the hospital was identified by authorities as Tyleisha Taylor, 20, who had worked at Dade Correctional Institution since January 2020.
"We are devastated to learn a member of our FDC family, Officer Taylor, was killed in a fatal shooting. Our prayers are with her family as they navigate this unimaginable loss,” Florida Secretary of Corrections Mark Inch said in a statement.
"It just goes to show you the magnitude of this gun violence issue," Ramirez said at the news conference. "It doesn't just affect the community, it affects the law enforcement community as well."
Two men also died when their car crashed into a wall at Miami Dade's College's Kendall campus while fleeing the scene. At least one gun was in the car, said Ramirez, but the exact connection to the shooting was unclear.
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Sunday’s shooting follows last week's shooting that left three people killed and 20 wounded in a still-unsolved bloody Memorial Day weekend.
“This violence has to stop,” Ramirez said. “This is extremely frustrating. Every weekend, it’s the same thing. And we’ve just got to band together. We did Operation Summer Heat, made a lot of arrests, seized a lot of firearms and here we are again.”
Another shooting on May 28 in the Wynwood area killed one person and injured six others.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she was “horrified” by this latest shooting.
“We will not allow a small group of violent actors to terrorize our community, and violent offenders will face the full weight of the law," she said in a statement Sunday.
“I’m fully committed to making sure Miami-Dade Police Department has all the resources they need to end this cycle of gun violence and prevent more tragedy by getting violent criminals off the street,” she added.
Contributing: Associated Press
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