From the articles in the
Miami Herald the past two days I doubt it has any relationship to the current economy. Liberty City section of Miami is one of the poorest areas in the United States. Chronic unemployment is nothing new or unusual and black on black crime is common including random shootings. This is the latest article.
"LIBERTY CITY
Manhunt continues after mass shooting in Liberty City
'Not one person has come forward' after worst shooting in years
BY DAVID OVALLE AND ROBERT SAMUELS
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
With nine people wounded, two fatally, police called it one of the largest mass shootings in Miami history.
But the weekend blood bath in Liberty City -- triggered by a mystery gunman who unleashed a hail of bullets on a street dice game -- underscored the same themes woven through much of Miami's urban violence, big or small.
Guns, poverty, lack of jobs and education, black-on-black violence, little cooperation with police -- familiar themes highlighted anew Saturday at a news conference organized by city leaders.
''This is a sick situation,'' said Rev. Jerome Starling, a firebrand activist. ``Last night was a terrible night in our community.''
Both young men slain were teenagers: Brandon T. Mills, 16, and Derrick ''Termite'' Gloster, 18.
The two teens were part of a large crowd of about 50 people who gathered around a street craps game Friday evening on Northwest 15th Avenue just south of 71st Street.
The games had been going for hours, witnesses said, first in the parking lot of a dilapidated three-story apartment building known for drug sales. Then it moved across the street, next to Brewton's grocery store.
There, Kenya Coles, 25, and her sister had gone to pick up potato chips and soda. As they paid at the counter, Kendra said she noticed a man outside pulling a gun from his waistband.
''Big, like an AK-47,'' she said.
Just before 10 p.m., the attacker ambushed the crowd with the weapon. Past a small apartment building and the Pavilion Laundromat, a second burst of gunfire erupted behind the Miracle Fry Conchfritter eatery.
Joan Rutherford, 45, was warming up chicken and rice at her next door apartment. She dived to ground, then ran outside along with more onlookers.
One teen lay on the ground, gasping for air, cash clenched in his fist, Rutherford said.
''His face was totally gone. The aroma of blood was in the air,'' she said. ``I've never been in the service, but it was like combat, like Vietnam.''
One of the wounded teens was Andrew Jackson, 16, shot in the buttocks. He lay on his stomach on the sidewalk when his mother came rushing to him.
'He was just calling out to me, `Mommy! Mommy!' '' said mother Danielle Coles, 45.
Hundreds gathered on the street. Patrolmen, some called in from other city patrol zones, rushed to control the crowd.
The two teens were declared dead immediately.
The diminutive Gloster lived with his grandmother, Brenda Estinat, 53, in a modest pink house just blocks from where he met his demise.
Gloster had been arrested 18 times since 2005, on charges ranging from trespassing to illegal gambling. Mills had one arrest, a 2006 battery charge. But he was working toward his GED, family said.
''He wasn't no bad person,'' Estinat said of her grandson. ``Everybody loved him. I mean, he cussed, he acted like he was hard, there would be little moments where he got in trouble, but then he would always call Grandma. He wasn't a bad Ch*ld.''
The other shooting victims -- all males in their late teens and early 20s -- were taken to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, one with a critical wound.
''This is one of those calls we were hoping was a false alarm,'' said Miami fire rescue Lt. Ignatious Carroll. ``It was one of those things you rarely see -- that many people shot.''
Detectives received conflicting witness accounts of the shooting, including the presence of a second shooter. Robbery is one theory. Police believe at least two guns were used.
But on Saturday, they had no firm suspect description, little cooperation from witnesses and no tips from the public.
''I was taken aback by the fact that so many people got shot and not one person has come forward to say anything,'' said Miami homicide Lt. John Buhrmaster.
On Saturday, as the politicians gathered for the news conference, technicians and detectives continued poring over a war zone-like crime scene.
More than 100 evidence cones -- many marking bullet casings -- dotted the street. A purple bicycle lay on the street. A pair of red women's flat shoes remained on the blacktop, abandoned in the chaos.
Neighbors gasped at the five-foot-wide bloodstain on the sidewalk.
The city leaders who gathered included Mayor Manny Diaz, Chief John Timoney, Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones and Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvahlo.
Diaz decried state and federal governments' slashing of budgets that provide programs for inner-city youths. Carvahlo, noting some victims hailed from Northwestern High, stressed that extra security and counselors would be at the school Monday.
All complained of the lack of government restriction on assault rifles increasingly used in Miami murders.
''These are weapons of war. They don't belong on the streets of Miami or any other city in America,'' Diaz said.
Anyone with information on the shootings can call Miami's homicide bureau at 305-579-6530 or Miami-Dade CrimeStoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
"
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