Gunfight at south Florida bar leaves 2 dead and 7 injured

DORAL, Fla. — Two people have been killed and seven injured in a shootout at a bar in a Miami suburb.

Investigators said a fight broke out around 3:30 a.m. Saturday at the Martini Bar at CityPlace Doral shopping center in Doral, Florida. When a guard intervened, an unnamed man pulled out a gun and shot the guard, Miami-Dade police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said.

Two off-duty Doral police officers who were also providing security returned fire, with one of them killing the shooter. One of the officers, a four-year veteran of the force, was shot in the leg and applied a tourniquet to himself, Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez told reporters.

Six other bystanders were also hit by gunfire — five men and one woman, Lopez said.

The injured officer has been released from a hospital, WTVJ-TV reported. The six bystanders remain hospitalized, two of whom are in critical condition, Zabaleta said.

A resident of a nearby apartment told WPLG-TV he heard a hail of gunshots.

“Around 3:15 or 3:30 in the morning I heard the first three gunshots,” William Suedois said. “I didn’t really know where it came from. I thought it was fireworks. Then right after that I heard probably 10 or 15 of them – very, very fast and very loud. It was very scary, very scary.”

Zabaleta said it is “way too early to know” who shot who.

He said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shootings, while Miami-Dade police are investigating the two deaths. Investigators said Saturday they could not yet say why the argument broke out. Officers continued to question witnesses at the bar well after dawn Saturday, while parts of the mall remained cordoned off while crime scene technicians collected evidence.

The killed guard has not yet been identified.