Fort Myers Nightclub Shooting: 2 Dead, 14 Others Wounded After Teen Event by Erin Dean, Kurt Chirbas and Alexander Smith
Fort Myers Nightclub Shooting: 2 Dead, 14 Others Wounded After Teen Event – NBC News
At least two people were killed and more than a dozen others injured after a shooting outside a Florida nightclub hosting an event for teens, officials said early Monday.
The gunfire rang out just as family members were picking up their kids from Club Blu in Fort Myers, where the “no ID required” party had just finished.
Some of the victims were aged as young as 12, according to authorities.
“We are deeply sorry for all involved,” Club Blu said in a Facebook post. “We tried to give the teens what we thought was a safe place to have a good time.”
The club said there was “armed security” at the event for children between the ages of 12 and 17, adding there “was nothing more we could have done.” Although police did not immediately give information about the identity of the suspects, the club said that “it was not kids at the party that did this despicable act.”
Police said that officers responded to the parking lot of Club Blu at around 12:30 a.m. to find multiple people suffering gunshot wounds ranging from minor to life-threatening
Of the 16 people taken to Lee Memorial Hospital, one died after being admitted and two others were in the intensive-care unit as of early Monday.
NBC station WBBH reported that both of those killed were male.
Shots were also fired — lightly injuring another person — five blocks away from the nightclub, police said. That crime scene was one of three related to the same shooting, WBBH reported.
Three people were detained for questioning early Monday.
Earlier, officers said three people left the scene in a car with two later fleeing the vehicle, according to WBBH reporter Gabrielle Shirley.
Shirley reported that “a big crowd of people scattered everywhere taking cover” when the gunshots rang out.
She added that an employee at the club was too shocked to speak. “He was just shaking his head, and through tears giving me the indication again that this is a very, very traumatic experience here, he could not even form words,” Shirley added.
Before detaining the trio, authorities said the Fort Myers Police Department and Lee County Sheriff’s Office were “actively canvassing the area looking for other persons who may be involved in this incident.”
Detectives had yet to determine a motive early Monday.
The shooting comes a little more than a month after the massacre at a gay club in Orlando that left 49 people dead, making it the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.
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