4 injured in an overnight shooting in downtown Orlando during an unusually violent weekend
By Gregory Lemos, CNN
Police in Orlando, Florida, said a shooting early Monday that injured four people, one of whom is 16, was just one of a number of shootings during “a very unusual weekend.”
“We had a higher than usual number of shootings. And you ask the question, why? Really, that’s something we are trying to figure out ourselves,” said Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolón.
According to Rolón, none of the individuals involved in Monday morning’s shooting sustained life-threatening injuries.
“Multiple people were shot in front of a nightclub during a very, very busy night in the downtown area,” Rolón said.
Rolón said the 16-year-old victim had been feuding with someone on social media and they ran into each other. An individual who was with the person the victim was feuding with “took a gun out, shot at the victim, shot the victim, and three other innocent bystanders.”
“So, it’s very unusual for something like this to happen but it also brings up the concern about what is a juvenile doing out and about, especially during that time of night? And then someone not thinking about the consequences for their actions when they’re trying to hurt someone and in the process hurt someone else,” Rolón said.
Rolón said police were already on patrol in the area and able to respond quickly. Police have not arrested a suspect but are continuing to follow up on leads.
Rolón said a 13, 17 and 25-year-old were injured in a separate shooting over the weekend. He said the incident took place late at night as the individuals were planning to go into the downtown area.
Rolón mentioned three other shootings as well: One on the eastside where a few individuals in cars shot at each other, one on the westside where multiple rounds were fired, and an incident on the railroad tracks near downtown.
Rolón said while Orlando saw a 20% increase in shootings incidents in June 2021 compared to the previous year, it is now seeing a decline.
“We modified our approach. We reallocated our resources and now we’re only seeing minus one percent, maybe up one percent compared to last year. We turned it around almost 20%. That is huge,” he said.
The Orlando incidents were among several other mass shootings across the country over the weekend.
The violence left at least 12 people dead and another 52 injured, according to CNN reporting and an analysis of data from Gun Violence Archive and local news and police reports. CNN defines a mass shooting as an incident with four or more people killed or wounded by gunfire, excluding the shooter.
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CNN’s Susannah Cullinane contributed to this story.
