A 16-month-old toddler is the youngest victim in Monday night’s mass shooting at Hollywood Beach which injured nine people.
The father of little Amari sent NBC6 pictures from his hospital bed, where the child is recovering after being shot in the foot.
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His father didn’t want to go on camera but said Amari is doing well and describes him as a happy baby, but his son’s foot will never be the same.
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The shooting happened shortly before 7 p.m. Monday as the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk was crowded with Memorial Day beachgoers.
Hollywood Police said of the nine victims, four are minors and five are adults.
“All hell broke loose,” said Sean Bennett, who said the shooting happened near where he and some friends were having lunch.
“Gunshots fired and everything, everybody scattered running kids,” Bennett said. “It’s something you see on TV, on the news but you’re never actually there to witness it.”
Bennett jumped into action when he saw a 15-year-old who had been shot in the chest.
“I immediately jumped over the wall and helped compress 'cause he was starting to bleed in his chest and everything,” he said. “He got shot in the stomach too as well.”
Bennett stopped by Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Tuesday to check on the teen but couldn’t get in. He fought back tears describing what he saw.
“It’s hard to talk, still processing everything,” Bennett said. “Everything could have gone wrong. I could have got shot, could’ve got hit by a stray bullet.”
City leaders and business owners like Corey Afriat are taking the shooting seriously and want to find ways to prevent it from happening again.
“To see something like this happen is pretty unfortunate,” said Afriat, who owns Cafe Club on Johnson Street.
Afriat said while the violence is shocking, he won’t let it define the area where he’s run his business for the last eight years.
“One act like this isn’t gonna shape who we are as a city,” Afriat said.
Amari’s father says his son is expected to be released Wednesday. The link to the family’s GoFundMe page is here.
