NORTH MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) — Miami-Dade Police are investigating after one person was killed and four others were injured after a shooting during a birthday gathering, Sunday morning.
According to police, just before 2 a.m., a private transportation service was dropping off a group of people who were returning from a gathering, when, as the group was standing in the parking lot, an unknown subject or subjects opened fire, striking multiple people.
One victim died on scene while the four surviving victims were transported to area hospitals in stable condition. The victims ranged in age from 17 to 23 years old.
On Sunday, a group of women gathered outside Ryder Trauma Center because one of their friends remained inside, recovering from her gunshot wound. They had been celebrating their friend’s 20th birthday on a party bus that night.
“It was a bus party,” Cleondra, who was on the bus, said. “We got off the bus, and we had went to sit down, but the only thing we heard was shots, so everybody got up.”
The party bus dropped the friends off near the Golden Glades Interchange when someone opened fire.
“It was crazy,” Cleondra said.
“It was scary, that’s traumatizing,” said another woman who was there.
Several of the women sustained gunshot wounds. Friends said the woman who died is 21-year-old Jasmine Dixon. Police later confirmed her identity.
Quanisha Hepburn, 18, is a senior at Miami Northwestern, according to friends gathered outside Ryder Trauma Center. A picture provided by her friends shows her sitting on the curb moments before the gunshots rang out. Bullets struck her in the upper and lower body, and she is now listed in stable condition.
“I mean, we finna graduate soon,” said a student. “It feels bad because now she probably can’t walk the stage soon. I feel bad for the family, as well. It’s a sad story.”
The picture shows another victim, 17-year-old Danesha Goulbourne, friends said. She sustained gunshot wounds to her right shoulder, right arm and neck and is now listed in stable condition at Aventura Hospital.
“We were off the bus taking pictures, and then all we heard was gunshots, and everybody started running. That was it,” Karina Font said.
Two more women were injured while running away from the gunfire: 20-year-old Lakeesha Hayes and 23-year-old Kandisha Rodgers.
Florence Browder said her granddaughter was one of the lucky ones who escaped unharmed.
“That could have been my granddaughter,” she said. “We gotta come together and stop this violence ’cause were destroying our kids’ futures.”
Police said they would like to make contact with whoever was inside a white or silver vehicle, possibly a Hyundai or a Kia, with damage to the passenger side of the vehicle. Detectives have information that this vehicle, along with others, fled the area after the shots rang out.
Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho urged anyone with information to speak up.
“The code of silence that actually protects murderous thugs in our community needs to come to an end,” Carvalho said.
Police continue to investigate.
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