Some of the victims of Monday's shooting near Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park in northwest Miami-Dade were still recovering Tuesday as police continued their investigation.
The MLK Day celebration took a dangerous turn when bullets rang out at the park at Northwest 62nd Street and 32nd Avenue, hitting eight people, most of them teenagers.
Doctors were treating up to six victims of the shooting Tuesday. Two juveniles were treated and released at the scene, and it's unknown how many of the victims have been treated and released from the hospital.
The shooting happened hours after an MLK parade had ended. Police are still investigating, trying to get to the bottom of who did the shooting and why it happened in the first place. A $21,000 reward is being offered for anyone with information that leads to an arrest in the case.
Two people were arrested at the scene on charges unrelated to the shooting, Miami-Dade Police said.
According to police, 28-year-old Alexander Brito-Peralta and 29-year-old Tavarius Flowers were both arrested for carrying a concealed firearm.
Brito-Peralta was seen by an officer with a gun in his waistband, police said. Flowers, who was also charged with child abuse causing no great bodily harm, told police he heard the gunshots, grabbed two of his sons and left them under the playground with his firearm while he went to find his third son, police said.
Of the eight people who were shot, five are juveniles, with one as young as 11. The ages range from 11 to 30, and no one knows if any of the victims were actually targeted.
One of the victims, 20-year-old Jerome Battle, was shot in the abdomen.
"He's doing, from 1 to 10 I'd probably give him a 4," said his father, also named Jerome Battle. "[I'm] not really scared. I just want him to get better."
Battle said it was frustrating that the shooting happened on MLK Day of all days.
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"It's supposed to be peace and everybody's supposed to get along," he said.
Shawnteria Wilson was also hit in the shooting. The 18-year-old was shot in her leg. “When I got shot, I was still on the ground, they still was shooting. Thinking about my little sister and I hope I just don't get shot again," said Wilson.
Her little sister was with her, but dodged the bullets. Wilson said the gunfire caught everyone by surprise, and leaves her disgusted and angry."It's crazy, it's insane. It's ridiculous for young people to be shooting at each other, just crazy."
