The sheriff says three shooters are responsible for Sunday night’s shooting in Escambia County that killed two men and injured five other people.
Sheriff Chip Simmons said Monday morning that the two fatal victims in the shooting outside the Marie K Young Wedgewood Community Center are men ages 21 and 24.
The other shooting victims are ages 11, 22, 23, 27 and 29.
The shooting happened around 8 p.m
According to Sheriff Simmons, a group of people were playing dice at a pavilion outside the center as a men’s basketball league game was taking place inside.
That’s when three men reportedly got out of a stolen white car and began firing shots at the group at the pavilion.
“This car pulls up, drives by one time, comes back, stops — and then three males get out,” Sheriff Simmons said. “One had a longer gun — an assault-type rifle — and then two had handguns. They aimed towards a number of people — a group of people — within that small pavilion area that were playing that dice game.”
The three shooters then got back in the car with a getaway driver waiting and fled the scene.
Deputies recovered the car — a Hyundai Sonata that was stolen about a month ago — near Dunaway Lane.
The four suspects have not been identified, but deputies released a surveillance picture of the shooters and are asking for the public’s help with any info.
“Now is the time where we need help from the community,” Sheriff Simmons said. “Now is the time where we say, ‘This is unnecessary violence. This can’t happen.’ …It’s time to talk about personal responsibility. …Lets talk about the fact that someone knows where these three people are. Someone knows where these people stayed last night. Someone knows that there was a white car they had been driving. Someone knows that. And when I talk about personal responsibility, I’m not just talking about the ones that pulled the trigger. I’m talking about the ones that knew about this beforehand, knew about it after the fact, the ones that are helping them. The ones that helped them steal the car. All of these things. I’m talking about the family that noticed a white car that they had never seen before right next door. Or parked in the back. And say, ‘What’s going on with that white car?’ And give us a call.”
Sheriff Simmons says the shooting was retaliatory for recent gun violence in the area.
“Let’s talk about the fact that there have been shootings we’ve had where no one knows anything about anything,” Sheriff Simmons said. “No one knows who did it. Yet somehow, oddly enough, there’s retaliation. So someone knows. And they don’t care to talk to us. There are families that know what’s going on.”
“That’s somebody’s grandchild. That’s somebody’s father. That’s somebody’s brother. That’s somebody’s coaches child,” District 3 Commissioner Lumon May said. “We can’t believe there’s not someone out there with information that can bring these people to justice.”
No details were provided on the conditions of the five hospitalized victims.
The community center is closed as the investigation continues.
“This is nothing new. Children can’t even go to a high school football game, they can’t go to a little league football game in Bellview,” May said. “They can’t walk in their neighborhoods off Hampton Road and off Longleaf to come into their community center. This has to stop and we’re gonna stand with this sheriff in making sure we can do everything we can to make the citizens of Escambia County safe.”
This is a developing story.
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Source: weartv
