Eight people shot during Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations
According to Miami police, at least eight people were shot on Monday during celebrations for Martin Luther King Day.
According to Miami police, at least eight people were shot on Monday during celebrations for Martin Luther King Day.
The shooting according just two hours after a parade had ended at Memorial Park in Northwest Miami-Dade. Juan Perez, the Miami-Dade police director, took to Twitter to denounce the incident as “shameful” and “not what the followers of Dr. King Jr. want out of our community.”
@MiamiDadePD shameful closing to the MLK Parade. Certainly not what the followers of Dr. King Jr. want out of our community.
— Juan Perez (@JPerezinMia) January 16, 2017
Three adults and five minors were shot, with an 18-year-old woman and 30-year-old Michael Clarke in stable condition, while 20-year-old Jerome Battle is in critical condition. Three teenage girls, Lajada Benson, 14, Nakya-Senat Butler, 15, and Alfanesha Times, 17, were also taken to the hospital in stable condition. Ciara Johnson, 11, and Keionna Green, 13, were grazed by bullets but were treated and released on the scene.
It is unclear what the motive was for the shooting, as well as whether or not any other suspects are at large.
