The curfew starts at 12.01 Thursday and expires Monday morning at. 6.00, starting at midnight each night. The boundaries of the midnight curfew are 23rd Street to the north, South Point Park to the south, the ocean to the east and the bay to the west, Mayor Alina Hudak told commissioners.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and Hudak announced the curfew during Monday’s press conference, but needed the commission’s approval to go beyond 72 hours.
The curfew and emergency order come after five people were injured in two shootings on Miami Beach’s iconic Ocean Drive over the weekend.
During the meeting, Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements expressed concern over the incidents.
“I’m trying to figure out how I can handle this amount with the numbers that are here and with what we encounter during the police work of this particular event,” he said.
Clements said in a shooting Saturday night that three people were injured that there were 10 police officers within 10-15 feet of the shooting.
“We saw what the effects were with someone going into the crowd with a firearm and randomly shooting at people,” Clements said. “We are so fortunate that there was no major loss of human life associated with these events because they were accidental. The people who were injured as a result had nothing to do with any kind of confrontation at all, but were deeply seen in the wrong place at the wrong time. “
Gelber noted that 371 officers were tasked with patrolling the crowds over the weekend.
Since the Spring Break season began in February, nine officers have been injured in some capacity, Clements said.
“The officers are EXTRAORDINATED. The party must end. The city officials must take immediate and firm action to ensure the safety of the officers and residents,” the tweet said.
Commissioner David Richardson recommended that the city also shut down liquor sales for off-site consumption at an earlier stage. The Emergency Management Order gives the municipal director the opportunity to do this at the office’s discretion.
Gelber said the commission will see how this weekend goes, and could meet again next week to hold another curfew for last weekend’s Spring Break.
A Miami Beach Live concert set for Saturday night will be rescheduled, Hudak said.
CNN has contacted Miami Beach Live and Clevelander for a comment. The Clevelander is a bar that successfully sued the city last year for an injunction that halted alcohol sales at 6 p.m.
Shootings leave 5 wounded
The announcement of the curfew came hours after two people were injured in a shooting in Miami Beach early Monday.
Officers patrolled the 700 block of Ocean Drive around 6 p.m. 1, when they heard gunshots and located two women who had been injured, police said in a press release. Both were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
Officers detained two people at the scene and found firearms. One of these people has since been released, and officers are still looking for the primary shooting suspect, the release states.
“On Sunday at 12:15 p.m., officers responded to a shooting along the 800 block of Ocean Drive,” Miami Beach Police Department spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said.
Two people were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and investigators later found that a third person arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound, also non-life-threatening, Rodriguez said.
“Detectives are talking to several people to determine what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting,” he added.
Mitch Novick, who owns the Sherbrooke Hotel in South Beach, shot footage of the Miami Beach crowd responding to the shot.
In the video, one can hear shots as people run for safety while a large number of police officers rush towards the shooting. Novick took shelter behind a white vehicle and continued filming.
“One could see many officers heroically running towards what was the sound of the shot,” Novick told CNN. “And then they came back and surrounded, I do not know if it was a person or a vehicle, but you can see their weapons pulled.”
Novick also shared security footage from his hotel, where people can be heard screaming in the middle of the sound of gunfire.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Miami Beach’s mayor. It’s Alina Hudak.