Miami-Dade

Site of Banquet Hall Mass Shooting Deemed ‘Unsafe', County Shuts Off Electricity

The development came one day after a third person, 32-year-old Shaniqua Peterson, died as a result of her injuries suffered in the May 30th incident

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County officials shut off the electricity Friday at the Northwest Miami-Dade banquet hall where a mass shooting the weekend before led to the deaths of three people and injuries to 20 more.

The Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources declared the El Mula Banquet Hall an “unsafe structure” during an inspection this week and shut the electricity off until further notice.

Tere Florin, a spokeswoman for the department, said inspectors found work done without permits and violations of the facility’s certificate calling for it to operate as a banquet hall.

Florin told the Miami Herald the violations were not directly related to the shooting or the concert that took place before.

“We don’t believe there’s any relationship between the shooting itself and the work that we’re doing,” Florin told the newspaper.

The development came one day after a third person, 32-year-old Shaniqua Peterson, died as a result of her injuries suffered in the May 30th incident.

"Our hearts are broken right now. She didn't deserve this," her aunt told NBC 6 on Wednesday when Peterson was still in the ICU.

Peterson’s family told NBC 6 she had been in a coma with a bullet lodged in her brain after the shooting.

“They took a mother from her son. they took a daughter from her parents. They took a sister from her siblings. They took a niece from her aunts and uncles.,” the family said in a statement to NBC 6. “Words can’t express the deep pain my family and I are feeling. If you know something, say something!”

Peterson was a mother to a 12-year-old son. The shooting also killed Clayton Dillard and Desmond Owners, who were both 26-years-old, while leaving 20 others hurt.

"My family is truly heartbroken by this senseless, unnecessary, demonic violence that's going on," Owens' aunt, Schkena Bruton, told reporters at a news conference.

Police are looking for a second car involved, saying they are now investigating if it was shooting at the crowd.

In previously released footage, flashes come from near a car as three men who appeared to be the ones to open fire on the crowd jump back in a white SUV and escape. Police said they have now sorted out that the gunfire was not aimed at the three masked men leaving, but at the crowd outside the building.

“No man or women should feel comfortable driving around with assault weapons to commit a crime in a stolen vehicle,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. “This will not happen on our watch.”

Levine Cava said announced the county would be cracking down on code violators as a result of the shooting.

“Code enforcement officers that will work alongside our law enforcement officers. They will shut down illegal businesses that are operating wherever we find them,” she said.

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

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