Panic in the park after hearing gunfire near a youth baseball game in Cutler Bay. Children and family members revealed on Tuesday how terrified they were the night before when they heard gunshots at a minor baseball game at Franjo Park in Cutler Bay. Video footage captured during the game showed small children and adults fleeing for shelter, unclear where the gunshot was coming from.
“It sounded like fireworks,” Justin Villalona, an 8-year-old baseball player, told CBS Miami. “I felt afraid. It was very awful. I felt like I was about to puke up. I ate three pizzas. The boy’s grandfather, Steve Flynn, said he was “shaken up.” He was kept out of school today. He was bawling. Mickey Lopez was coaching the Franjo Seminoles when he heard the rapid firing. “The pops, you think that could be potential firecrackers, but the consistency of the rounds of the guns being fired, we knew immediately,” Lopez recalled. “My concern is for the children and families; we want to safeguard them. So we immediately understood that we needed to get down and find cover.
CBS News Miami learned that bullets were fired in two different locations. Two guys were rushed to Jackson South Medical Center following the shooting, Miami-Dade police reported Monday night. At 7:47 p.m., officers responded to reports of a shooting near the 21000 block of SW 89 Avenue, according to Detective Angel Rodriguez. The youth competed for two teams in the Perrine Baseball and Softball Association.
CBS News Miami has found that the Association and the town of Cutler Bay are collaborating to prepare a strategy if something similar occurs again. Daniella Madrid stated that her father’s car was damaged by gunfire during the shooting. The vehicle was parked in front of their house near the park where the game was taking place.
“My heart falls like, like, seeing how many bullet shots are in there because my dad could have been in the car,” Madrid told the reporter. “I could have been in that car. That would have destroyed me; my niece may have been in the car. What if there was a child in the backseat? Like the bullets passed through. Madrid reported that bullets were fired outside her residence shortly before 8 p.m.
“It turns out that our neighbors had a shootout happen,” she told me. “I can’t go into too many details because the officers stated that it’s a horrible scenario. Essentially, two men were sitting immediately behind our car. It turns out that one of the people in the other car drove around into the baseball field, then circled back around into the cul-de-sac and began shooting with guns.”
There were no injuries recorded in the park, but two men were shot near Madrid’s residence, one in the foot and the other in the thigh. According to police, neither injury was life-threatening. Madrid also told CBS News Miami, “I was angry.” I became enraged since I have a niece and nephew their age. I understand what it’s like to witness something horrible, and seeing this happen is terrifying. The adults who did it were inhumane, and the children were devastated. There are at least thirteen bullet holes in my father’s automobile.”
Charles Guevara, the manager of the Ground Zero Barber Shop, stated, “One of the rounds penetrated the front glass here, and one bullet went inside. It’s wild. We live in a good community, and the fact that this is happening when kids are playing a game is dreadful.”
