Police: 10 people injured in Lakeland drive-by shooting

Police officers are investigating a drive-by shooting that injured multiple people in a residential neighborhood Monday afternoon, just north of downtown Lakeland.

At a press conference, Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor said 10 people are being treated for gunshot wounds after a dark-blue, four-door Nissan with tinted windows slowly drove past the area of North Iowa Avenue and Plum Street and those inside shot at victims on both sides of the car.

“I’ve been here 34 years and I can tell you I’ve never worked an event where this many people were shot at one time — ever,” Taylor said. “After the shooting, the vehicle left speeding northbound on Iowa Avenue... and made an eastbound turn on Memorial Boulevard, and we are actively searching for that vehicle now.”

Taylor said the public should not worry about their safety tonight because investigators do not believe this was a random shooting.

“We think that the individuals in the car shot at and shot who they wanted to shoot,” he said. “It was an intentional act. It certainly wasn’t random.”

At the press conference Taylor said there was enough marijuana found at the scene that detectives believe there was a sale of narcotics, but whether or not that detail is related to the shooting is still not clear, he said.

Of the 10 victims, two are reported to have serious injuries and eight have less-severe injuries, police said.

Lakeland officers were notified of the drive-by shooting at 3:43 p.m. and have collected at least one cell phone video of the car before the shooting. Police are searching for four suspects.

“We’ll certainly have extra patrols out tonight,” Taylor said.