orlando, fLA. – Downtown Orlando businesses will be able to serve alcohol after midnight again starting tonight, according to a release from city officials Thursday.
The state of emergency and curfew that Mayor Buddy Dyer put in place last week in the wake of a mass shooting on Halloween night will end at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The city says the Orlando Police Department will “increase public safety measures both seen and unseen.”
Two people were killed when 17-year-old Jaylen Edgar allegedly opened fire among the costumed revelers downtown around 1 a.m. on Nov. 1. Seven people were injured by gunshots, and another person was hurt when they were trampled by the fleeing crowd.
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Edgar is being tried as an adult and is facing murder and attempted murder charges.
In response, Dyer declared a state of emergency and a curfew from 1 - 5 a.m., requiring alcohol sales to end at midnight.
City officials say the street-party atmosphere downtown has led to consistent public safety issues, and that is going to change. To that end, starting Friday, Nov. 15, the city will start reopening Orange Avenue and the side streets to vehicular traffic during late-night hours.
This will be done gradually, using barricades to keep pedestrians closer to the sidewalks, and opening one lane of traffic on Orange Avenue.
“I mean, when they close off all these streets, people would walk in the streets, and it would be less crowded,” said Caleb Villavicencio, who was in the area at the time of the shooting. “I feel like if they open up the streets, these sidewalks will be a lot more crowded, and I feel like there will be a lot more potential for fights.”
Eventually, all three lanes of Orange Avenue will reopen, but a city spokesperson says there is not set timeline for that yet.
“Downtown and its streets must operate differently to create a more welcoming place where our local businesses are patronized and supported,” said David Barilla, executive director of the Downtown Development Board and Community Redevelopment Agency, in a statement released by the city.
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