10 people injured in broad daylight in a drive-by shooting in Florida

January 30 (UPI) — At least four gunmen in a sedan opened fire on both sides of a street in a “troubled neighborhood” in Lakeland, Fla., injuring at least 10 people, including two in critical condition, authorities said.

A drive-by shooting was reported to police in the 900 block near Iowa Avenue North and Plum Street in downtown Lakeland at about 3:43 p.m., a minute after a school bus dropped the kids off the street, Police Chief Sam Taylor said. during evening press conference.

The victims were described as males between the ages of 20 and 35. Three victims were found at the scene. The rest were taken to the Lakeland Regional Medical Center in private vehicles. Some marijuana was also found at the scene.

According to Taylor, the two victims, one of whom was shot in the stomach and the other in the face, were in critical condition and were either in the surgical department at the time of the press conference or were expected shortly.

Mass shootings are rare in Lakeland, where about 115,000 people between Tampa and Orlando, with Taylor noting that in his 34 years of police service, he had never seen so many gunshot wounds at once.

“This is something that doesn’t happen in Lakeland,” he said.

“We consider ourselves a small city… And when things like this happen, I understand a little bit that maybe we are not a small city anymore, and it’s actually quite sad.”

Taylor said the car, described as a dark blue four-door Nissan with tinted windows and a timestamp, was rolling through the neighborhood when at least four gunmen inside rolled down all of the car’s windows and fired on both sides. street in what he described as aimed shooting.

The car did not stop during the passage, and then sped away. Police searched the car on Monday evening and asked the public for help in finding it.

“We think the people in the car were shooting and shooting who they wanted to shoot,” Taylor said. “It was a deliberate action. It certainly wasn’t an accident, just a drive-by shooting, and like I said, things like that just don’t happen in Lakeland, but it happened tonight, it happened tonight, which is disappointing. .”

Asked how many shots were fired during the shooting, Taylor said investigators were working to determine the exact number, but “I can tell you a lot.”

It is not known if anyone returned fire on the sedan, he said, adding that the only weapon found was a rifle seen “in plain sight” in one of the private vehicles that took the victim to the hospital.

He said it was “definitely within the realm of possibility” that the shooting was gang-related, but “too early” to draw such a conclusion, although police are on high alert due to the possibility of a retaliatory attack.

It is also unknown if the marijuana found at the scene was related to the incident, although Taylor said its presence suggests the shooting happened during some kind of drug deal.

The area is known to the police, he continued.

“This is an area that we have paid quite a lot of attention to in recent years,” he said. “But it is difficult. It’s a tough area.”

“We have invested a lot of resources and manpower in trying to fix this and we will continue to do so,” he said.

Police initially reported nine people injured in the shooting, but later increased the number to 10 after another victim was admitted to hospital with a ricochet wound.

The drive follows a series of mass shootings across the country. On Saturday, three people were killed and four others injured in a shooting in Los Angeles’ upscale Beverly Crest neighborhood.

Before Drive to Lakeland The Gun Violence Archive, non-profit and non-advocacy organizationreported 49 mass shootings in the US in the first 30 days of the year.

Last year, during the same period, there were 33 mass executions.

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