3 teens among 7 hurt in 2 shootings in downtown Orlando on Halloween night, police say

ORLANDO, Fla. – Seven people were wounded in two separate shootings during a violent night of Halloween celebrations in downtown Orlando, police said.

Orlando police said one shooting took place around 1:30 a.m. Monday on Orange Avenue near Wall Street while hundreds partied in the streets.

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According to police, a man pulled out a gun and opened fire, injuring four people, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

“So what we have so far is that a 16-year-old was having some type of feud on social media with another individual,” Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said. “That individual — he ran into or they ran into each other in the downtown area and someone on the other side of the victim had a gun, fired at the victim, struck the victim and three other people.”

The suspected shooter has not been arrested.

Rolon added that the “intended target was the 16-year-old.”

Police later confirmed a second shooting on Robinson Street near Lake Eola that left three people wounded.

“You had a bad incident. You had a 13-year-old, a 17-year-old and a 25-year-old at 10:30 at night who were planning to go into the downtown area.” Rolon said. “Thankfully, none of those victims were seriously hurt — and we’re still trying to piece together the information as far as what actually happened there.”

The victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

No arrests have been made in those two, separate shootings.

Rolon defended the response of his officers to the violence downtown.

“We were there,” Rolon said. “(We had) officers who were at Wall Street, officers who were at the Beacham, officers who were part of the downtown detail and literally when everything went out, officers were able to come into the area quickly. Unfortunately, though, there were so many people that everyone just scattered,” the chief said. “There’s always a potential for something to occur but the officers were there and they were able to respond quickly to the situation.”

The police chief provided some details on other acts of gun violence that took place over the weekend.

“So we had a couple of shootings, not only in the downtown area but over in the east side. We had one over by South Goldenrod (Road) where a couple of individuals in cars shot at each other. We had another incident in the west side of the city where multiple rounds were fired. And then we had an incident on the railroad tracks near downtown where someone (was) shot but that person didn’t even want to prosecute,” Rolon said. “So, it was a very unusual weekend where we had a higher number than usual number of shootings. And, you know, you ask the question, why? Really that’s something that we are trying to figure out ourselves.”