Public ‘execution’
Shot dead in Miami spring-break crowd
Shocking surveillance video captured an execution-style killing in Miami Beach in the early hours on Sunday, which took place in the middle of a crowded sidewalk.
The alleged gunman shot the victim with almost a dozen bullets from a stolen semiautomatic handgun in the apparently targeted attack, police records show.
The terrifying footage shows vacationers in the heavily policed city walking underneath umbrellas around 3:30 a.m. before scattering as the gunman opens fire at point-blank range and runs off.
Dontavious Polk, 24, was arrested following the slaying. In the video, four men can be seen approaching the victim, who was walking the opposite way with his arms around a woman, before one pulls the gun from under his shirt and shoots him.
He didn’t stop firing even after the victim — who has yet to be identified — collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
Polk allegedly fled the scene and ditched the contraband weapon, a Glock 27, his arrest report states. Investigators later recovered 11 spent .40-caliber shell casings at the crime scene.
Police tackled the 4-foot-11, 140 pound suspect to the ground. He was booked later that day after being hospitalized and treated for pain stemming from a gunshot wound he had previously sustained, Miami Beach Police said.
The victim was rushed to a hospital, but he could not be saved.
Polk has been charged with firstdegree murder in what cops called “a targeted and isolated incident.”
Curfew for spring break
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber slammed spring break in his community in the wake of Sunday’s bloodshed and another fatal shooting two nights earlier.
“We don’t ask for spring break in our city,” Gelber said. “We don’t want spring break in our city. It’s too rowdy, it brings too much disorder and it’s simply too difficult to police.”
On Friday, a man was killed and another was critically wounded in a shooting at around 10:40 p.m., police said. A suspect was later taken into custody, and police recovered four guns from the crime scene. It is unknown if the two shootings were related.
Both incidents, the mayor noted, involved people visiting from out of town. He instituted a strict curfew from midnight on Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday and restricted alcohol sales in parts of the city.
“It is clear that even an unprecedented police presence could not prevent these incidents from occurring,” Gelber said. “The volume of people in our city, the unruly nature of too many, and the presence of guns has created a peril that cannot go unchecked.”
He said cops had recovered over 70 guns in the past three weeks.
Cops were photographed Sunday enforcing the strict curfew, which does not apply to residents, people going to and from work or emergency services. Hotels remained open, while restaurants could only make deliveries.
Officials on Monday decided not to extend the curfew to the following weekend, when the city hosts the Ultra music festival.