A shooting at a business in southwest Miami-Dade Thursday afternoon prompted a massive police response and left three people hospitalized.
A mother and her daughter are lucky to be alive after they ended up in the middle of a shooting in southwest Miami-Dade Thursday afternoon.
Lidia Amoretti-Morgado was dropping her daughter, Camila, off at cheer practice when the gunfire broke out at Priced Right Motors at Southwest 73rd Avenue and 45th Street.
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"I was about to drop her off, literally, she was about to open the doors to get out and go into the building, when I started hearing like, just this craziness, like police cars swarming around me and the shooting, it was like, pop-pop-pop, it was just like something that you never think you'll experience," she said. "I tried to reverse when I saw what was going on, to get myself out of the area, but I had a police car behind me, just, I was boxed in completely. So at that moment, I just didn't even know what to do. All you know, I'm sitting in the front the shooting like, obviously the suspect is shooting at cops and they're shooting back, and it's like, you don't even know where it's coming from. So we ducked down, and that's the only thing I could do."
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Amoretti-Morgado said there was a pause in the gunfire and she saw another parent coming toward her.
"There was a moment where it stopped, and then I see one of the cheer dads coming from the side of my car. He's like, almost crawling down, telling me, 'get out.' He opened my door. I got out, and then I went around and got my daughter out," she said. "At that point I ran, there was like a body shop right across the where I was, like behind it, I guess, next to the building where I was going. And there was a man who saw me and told us 'come' and we started running towards the body shop. And that's where we took coverage."
Amoretti-Morgado said the gunfire lasted for a while.
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"The shooting was just non-stop, and it was just, you know, you can just hear the guns like the, I guess the bullets flying. And then at that moment, I just didn't know, because I wasn't sure, do I get out and risk my life of getting shot? But staying in, I could still get shot if a bullet hits my car, so there was a pause, and for last second I thought, oh, it's done, and that's when I got out. But then as we're running out, it began again, and it went on for a while," she said.
"My mom told me that I ducked down, I ducked down with the dog, and then we got out of the car," Camila said. "I'm fine. At least I didn't get hurt."
Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office officials said three people were hospitalized after the shooting unfolded at the dealership.
One victim died, another was in stable condition, and the shooter was in critical condition, officials said.
Amoretti-Morgado said she's thankful they survived.
"It was just something incredible that you see, you know, in a movie, like this is not something you ever think, you know, you're just going about your day and taking my daughter to cheer practice. You know, it's, it's something that you never thought would happen," she said. "I stayed calm through the whole process, but seeing my daughter scream in terror, that was really hard, because as a parent, you're like, at that moment, I felt like we need to be safe, and then I can calm her down. So it was terrifying. And I do want to add that you know the man who took me out, he's one of the cheer dads that helped me out of the car, and honestly, he risked this life as well, trying to help us."
