Miami Beach declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Sunday night in response to two fatal shootings in the city’s Ocean Drive entertainment district.
(Bloomberg) — Miami Beach declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Sunday night in response to two fatal shootings in the city’s Ocean Drive entertainment district.
The Florida city’s commission will meet Monday to discuss extending restrictions for the coming weekend, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said in a recorded briefing. The two separate deadly shootings involved visitors, according to Gelber, as spring break brought a large number of unruly crowds and guns from other states, creating a “whole intolerable situation,” he said.
“We don’t want spring break in our city,” Gelber said. “It’s too loud, too rowdy and simply too difficult to police.”
This is the second consecutive year Miami Beach declared a state of emergency on spring break. Back in 2021, the city also imposed a curfew after Ocean Drive shootings. Previous efforts to curb the excessive drinking and violence have raised complaints about racism.
Miami Beach has about 90,000 residents and the city said it deployed hundreds of law enforcement officers this past weekend, without providing a specific number. But the volume of crowds has made it “extremely difficult” for police vehicles to get through the area, where multiple fights, shootings and stampedes have occurred, City Manager Alina Hudak said in the state of emergency declaration statement.
Besides the curfew from midnight Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday that covered a large area of South Beach, the city also imposed restrictions on consumption of alcohol off-premise on Sunday.
“The volume of people in our city, the unruly nature of too many and the presence of guns have created a peril that can not go unchecked,” Gelber said. Over the past three weeks, the city has impounded over 70 firearms and made 322 arrests, according to the statement.
(Adds details on the restrictive measures starting in the fourth paragraph)
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