2 dead, 16 hurt in shooting at teen party in Florida
Police say attack “not an act of terror.”
Two people are dead, including a 14-year-old boy and a local high school basketball star, and up to 16 were injured after a deadly shooting during teen night at a Florida nightclub.
The mass shooting “is not an act of terror,” police said.
Monday evening, three of the victims, ages 12 to 27, remained hospitalized, two with potentially life-threatening injuries, said Cheryl Garn, a spokeswoman for Lee Memorial Health Systems.
The gunshots rang out here just after midnight ET Monday as parents picked up their kids from a teen “Swimsuit and Glow Party” at Club Blu. The party was advertised on Club Blu’s Facebook page. (The notice was subsequently removed and the page taken down.)
Interim Police Chief Dennis Eads, at the Fort Myers crime scene Monday morning, declined to answer questions about whom the shooters may have targeted. Demetrius O’Neal, 19; Derrick Church, 19; and Tajze Battle, 22, are in custody in connection with the shooting, and police are searching for other potential suspects.
The incident comes six weeks after the deadly shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando about 150 miles north of Fort Myers. The Orlando gunman, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, killed 49 club patrons June 12 before police shot him after what is considered the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history.
Police named the victims as Sean Archilles, 14, and local high school basketball star Stef ’an Strawder, 18.
Sean’s father, Jean Robert Archilles, said he still can’t believe his son is dead.
Sean went to Royal Palm Exceptional School, a county-run pre-kindergarten through 12thgrade school with about 150 students, and Archilles said he can’t imagine why anyone would kill him.
Strawder, a promising high school basketball player who aspired to play Division I college basketball, was pronounced dead at Lee Memorial Hospital at 3:30 a.m., according to his mother, Stephanie White.
The teen was shot in his right shoulder as he walked through Club Blu’s door on his way to the parking lot, his mother said. White heard that Strawder had pushed his cousin out of the way right before he was hit.
The usually adults-only nightclub that sells to-go food in the community opened its doors to everybody Sunday night with a “Vonte Birthday Bash,” and no ID was required. Free glow necklaces and bracelets — seen on dancing customers in a Snapchat video posted just before the shooting — as well as beach toys were handed out at the door. The party started at 8:30 p.m. Azemard said she sometimes works at the club as security for adult events.
“They should have had security,” she said. “I didn’t know they had kid parties.”
Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson said the city will investigate why so many young people were at Club Blu into the earlymorning hours. The city has an 9 p.m. curfew for those younger than 18 Sundays to Thursdays and 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
The curfew was put into place to keep kids safe, he said. And city officials rely on parents to help them enforce the rules.
“We did everything we could to make sure these kids were safe,” Club Blu co-owner Cheryl Filardi told The News-Press, adding that at least eight armed guards were there for security. “There was nothing we could do. ... A car rolled up and just started shooting.”
Gunshots were fired in rapid succession, she said, leading her to believe one of the guns involved was automatic. One of the security guards was also shot.
An earlier statement on Facebook, which has since been deleted but was preserved by a Twitter user, said: “No ID was required because it was a middle school/high school event.”