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Two dead, 17 shot during "Teen Night" at Florida club

Posted at 4:48 AM, Jul 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-25 08:36:56-04
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Two people have been killed and more than a dozen shot at a nightclub in Fort Myers, Florida, authorities said.

At least 17 people have been shot in the early Monday shooting at Club Blu, police Capt. Jim Mulligan said.

There are two active crime scenes, Mulligan said.

 
According to Fort Myers-based WFTX, it happened in the parking lot of Club Blu in Fort Myers at around 1 a.m. ET. Three people have been detained, WFTX reported. 

The area was later deemed safe, but Mulligan said a street was still closed as authorities investigated.

In a statement, authorities said the Fort Myers police and the Lee County Sheriff's Office were "actively canvassing the area looking for other persons who may be involved in this incident."

Three people remained hospitalized Monday morning, Cherly Garn, a spokeswoman for Lee Memorial Health System, said in an e-mail. All others were treated and released. Two people brought to two other area hospitals were also treated and released, Garn said.

Ages of the patients ranged from 12 to 27, Garn said. The names of the victims were not immediately available.

Syreeta Gary told WFTX-TV her daughter ran and dodged between shots to avoid being shot. Her daughter was OK, but her daughter's friend "got hit in the leg and luckily it's just her leg," she said.

"Her dodging bullets and running, dropping in between cars, it's ridiculous that these kids have to go through this," Gary said. "They can't enjoy themselves because you have other people that have criminalistic minds and they just want to terrorize things."

 

The shooting comes more than a month after a nightclub shooting in Orlando that was the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history. The shooting at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 left 49 victims dead and 53 others wounded.
 

Club Blu released a statement on Facebook.