Dramatic video shows children in the middle of a baseball game suddenly running from a nearby barrage of gunfire in Cutler Bay that left two men shot.
Miami-Dade Police said they responded at around 7:45 p.m. Monday to reports of a shooting in the 21000 block of Southwest 89th Avenue. It happened near Franjo Park, where a youth baseball game was taking place.
In the footage, children and coaches scream as at least 10 shots are fired in quick succession. For the first few rounds, everyone on the field looks puzzled by the noise. Then, they sprint for cover.
Most of the kids on the field were just 8 years old, while others had just wrapped up their games and were sitting around eating pizza.
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Steve Flynn, who was at his grandson’s baseball game, heard the barrage of gunfire and said for a few seconds everyone was trying to get oriented to figure out if there was an active shooter inside the park. But they noticed it was outside and covered their kids until it passed.
"The coaches, the umpires, everybody was covering over kids, we were covering over kids," he said. "My wife, I threw her under the picnic tables and then I took off because I was going to get my gun at the parking lot. A couple of people went to get weapons."
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No children were hurt in the shooting.
"There were kids in the park, we were wondering what was gonna happen, if one of the kids was shot," witness Gloria Torres said. "Everybody was running, it was crazy."
But two men were found shot at the scene of the gunfire. Their injuries were not life-threatening, and they were taken to Jackson Medical Center in stable condition, authorities said.
Witnesses told NBC6 that the shooting happened at a house behind a gas station, where people wearing all black with ski masks were shooting at each other while driving down Old Cutler and Franjo roads.
A gas station clerk also said he heard shots.
Daniela Madrid lives at a home behind the park. She believes the rounds were directed at her neighbors who live in the duplex in front of her.
"I would be coming home late from work and then I would see like a group of them, I don't know if they were friends, I don't know if they were family, but it was like a large group of them, I'm assuming that they were affiliated with what was going on because when I would come home they would have ski masks on," she said.
Madrid said she had a “mind your own business” mentality and did not interact much with them but now she said she’s angry. Her father’s car was hit by dozens of bullets.
"Like, he could have been in the car. I laugh a little bit about it now because it's just a ridiculous situation and you're trying to make light of the situation, you're trying to like be okay with what's going on but I was pissed. I was fuming and I wasn't even just fuming for myself I was fuming for those kids," she said. "Now you can't even go and play baseball, now you can't even go outside your house, I can't even get the mail, like when does it stop?”
Police did not have any information on a suspect.
On their official account, the town of Cutler Bay posted an Instagram story about the shooting, reiterating that no park visitors were harmed in the shooting.
But the shooting shocked many in the quiet community.
"It was scary, something we didn't expect, we are in a family-oriented neighborhood, we're all together, we know each other and the neighbors and we're worried because it never happens," Torres said.
But Barbara Mesa, who lives nearby, said crime has been rising in the area.
"We've had more crime than ever," Mesa said. "It concerns me, I have a grandson that's nine, and we wanted him to play baseball and it's very concerning that there's so many children here all the time that something like this could happen."
