City leaders have imposed a curfew from 12 am to 6 am from Thursday to Saturday and are likely to extend the curfew amid ongoing Spring Break violence. The brutal fight got five people injured in separate shootings with over 100 guns getting seized by officials.
The Daily Mail has details:
Footage of a violent skirmish between Spring Break revelers in Miami Beach has emerged as city commissioners agreed to extend an emergency curfew Tuesday to curb gun violence and overall chaos that has gripped the city in recent days.
The commission voted unanimously during a special meeting to keep a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew in place for the city’s South Beach area through at least Monday.
The state of emergency declared Monday by City Manager Alina Hudak would have started the curfew early Thursday after midnight and run through Saturday. Besides the curfew, the commission’s Tuesday vote to give the city manager the power to stop liquor stores and other retailers from selling alcohol in the area.
Several commissioners acknowledged that the city might be sued by business owners, who normally make a lot of money in March, but they all agreed that keeping residents and visitors safe was the priority.
‘You cannot balance public safety with revenue,’ Mayor Dan Gelber said.
Thousands of college students and other young people gather each year in Miami Beach for spring break, and this is the second year in a row that officials for the South Florida city have declared a state of emergency in this famed partying spot.
Three people were wounded early Sunday on a street crowded with spring breakers in the city’s South Beach neighborhood, police said. Two victims wounded at the scene were taken to a hospital, while doctors at another hospital reported a third person arrived there with a gunshot wound. All were expected to survive.
Here is how it all started.
Early Monday, officers were patrolling about a block from the Sunday morning shooting site when they heard gunshots, police said. The officers found two women with gunshot wounds though police said their wounds weren’t life-threatening.
At the urging of some residents, city officials have been working in recent years to crack down on unruly behavior in South Beach. But moves to curb the excessive drinking and violence have raised complaints about racism, classism and business practices.
Joshua Wallack, chief operating officer of Mango´s Tropical Café, represents one of the Ocean Drive businesses that have pushed back against attempts by city officials to ban alcohol sales after 2 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. But Wallack said he understood the need for the emergency curfew.
Flip to the next page to watch the brawl video.