Two people were rushed to the hospital after a shooting early Friday morning on a busy Miami Beach street.
Officers responded to the scene at 1437 Washington Avenue just after 4:30 a.m. where both victims, one man and one woman, were found on the sidewalk suffering from gun shot wounds to the legs, officials said.
The shooting occurred just outside the Score nightclub, but officials have not said if the victims or shooter were in the club at all before shots were fired.
Both victims were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where their injures are not considered to be life threatening. A third person was also taken to the hospital, but was not shot.
"A third victim was also transported to Mount Sinai Hospital. The moments leading up to this altercation which we're still piecing together, there was some sort of physical argument so he was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital with physical injuries resulting from that physical fight," Miami Beach Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said.
Police say they have two persons of interest — Aleksandar Ilic and Marko Jovicic —in custody who they are interviewing.
"It was really fast," witness Raimundo Gota said. "Let me tell you, it was really fast. I mean it. In two minutes, a fight, then boom, boom, boom, poof."
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Traffic had been closed on Washington Avenue at Espanola Way but was later reopened.
Police were still investigating what led to the shooting, which wasn't the only violent incident on Miami Beach this week.
On July 3, a victim was robbed of $1,500, police said. The situation escalated when when a bystander tried to shoot the suspect, who ran off near 11th Street and Washington Avenue, according to the arrest report.
Police were able to arrest 21-year-old Christopher Pierre, who was charged with strong armed robbery.
"Our police officers work very hard with the tools that they have, but at the same time, I think that as a city we need to do more to put out a message that if you're a predator and you're going to come here with a gun or a knife and rob somebody or beat them up, that this isn't the place for you," Commissioner Michael Greico said.
Added Greico: "We're gonna stop you before you get here and hurt somebody, and I feel like there's been a failure."
Overall crime in Miami Beach is down, according to uniform crime report statistics that the city provided to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Compared to the same time last year through May 31, violent crime is down more than two percent.
