Miami Beach curfew  follows shootings – 2 dead, 2 injured

Miami Beach authorities decreed a state of emergency and a curfew on Sunday after two consecutive nights of shootings left two dead and two injured.

The curfew, which will take effect from midnight Sunday until 6:00 a.m. local time (11:00 GMT) on Monday, was imposed “in response to the two shootings and the excessively large and unruly crowds, and to mitigate dangerous and illegal behaviors,” the city in) explained in a statement.

The administrator of Miami Beach, Alina Hudak, plans to impose a curfew again, which will be limited to the tourist neighborhood of South Beach, between Thursday, March 23 and Monday, March 26, as she will propose to the city council in a special session on Monday, according to the statement.

The measure follows an exchange of gunfire that occurred Friday night at a busy intersection in South Beach that left one person dead and another seriously injured.

Upon arrival at the scene, police officers found two men with gunshot wounds, who were transported to a local hospital, where shortly after one of them died.

A suspect was detained by officers, who recovered three firearms at the scene.

On Sunday morning four blocks from where this event occurred, an area full of bars and nightclubs there was a new shooting that left one man dead and another wounded, according to the local police, who added that a man was arrested as a suspect and the murder weapon was found nearby.

The authorities indicated that it was “an isolated incident” and have not released the identities of the victims and suspects in both events due to ongoing investigations.

The Miami Beach authorities maintain a strong police presence in the tourist neighborhood of South Beach, especially this week, the third of March, identified as the peak in terms of the influx of young visitors from other states for “Spring Break.”