DAVIE, FLA. (WSVN) - A shooting in the parking lot of a beauty school in Davie left one person dead and sent another to the hospital in critical condition, police said.
Davie Police units responded to the scene of the incident near the Aveda Institute, located along the 4100 block of South University Drive, Tuesday afternoon.
7News cameras captured a massive law enforcement presence in the area. From the air, cameras captured a bullet hole through the windshield
“At 2:08 p.m., a report of a shooting was received at the Aveda Institute. Officers responded, they found two victims in the parking lot,” said Davie Police spokesperson Julia Ross. “One was transported to a local area hospital in critical condition. The second was deceased on scene.”
Panic and confusion rippled through the beauty school. Witnesses who were students, staff or clients told 7News they heard screaming and several gunshots.
“I was inside getting my hair done. They were finishing up, and then we just heard screaming,” said a woman who asked not to be identified or show her face on camera.
Cellphone video shows Davie Police officers evacuating the beauty school. Students and clients are seen walking out with their hands raised as officers with long guns direct them to the exits.
During the video, people can be heard crying and panicking.
“All you could see was big guns, literally, and we had our hands up,” said student Lovania Tilus.
Witness Monica May said she was inside the beauty school when law enforcement officials entered and alerted people to a situation.
“I saw a lot of the girls told everybody to get up and rush out. It was confusion, nobody knew which way to go,” she said, “and finally they pushed us out in front of the door with cops with their rifles, and we went out to the parking lot. We had to sit down on the floor, and we were taken to another place, a safe place.”
Detectives moved quickly, as they spread out and searched for witnesses. An officer at the scene split the people they evacuated into two groups.
“This side is going to be, if you were in here, but you could not see or hear anything. This side, is going to be, you saw and heard things that are relevant for us to know,” said the officer.
May said she spoke to two students who said they saw the shooting.
“They said to me, ‘We saw it. We were standing outside in a little break, ’cause they also work for Aveda, and we saw when [the shooter] was standing and, with the gun, shooting in the window,'” she said,
May added another woman who was with the victim had entered the beauty school moments before the shooting.
“Her friend who worked in [the beauty school] had walked inside to get something, and when she heard what was going on, she found out that her friend was killed,” she said.
May said she was nervous and shaking in the aftermath of the incident.
“It was, I don’t even know how to explain the feeling, but it happened so fast, everything was crazy,” she said. “They wouldn’t tell us anything for the longest time, until we got to the safe place, and they told us that someone had died. That’s when most of us broke down, because it is sad.”
Another woman who was inside described what she heard to 7News.
“I didn’t know where to hide, because it’s very open in there, so then I kind of went to another place, more closed, and was just waiting, and then they started screaming, ‘Everybody out, everybody out,'” she said.
Other witnesses told 7News the shooter was fully covered, wearing a mask and a hoodie. One witness said she heard six gunshots.
Neatby schools were placed on lockdown as investigators secured the area.
Officials said they are not looking for a subject at this time.
Detectives urged motorists to avoid the area from Griffin Road to Nova Drive as officials investigated.
Hours later, 7News cameras captured three cars being towed away from the parking lot.
Police have not released the identities of the two people involved in this incident. The circumstances leading up to the deadly shooting also remain unclear.
The beauty school announced on social media that it will be closed for the rest of the week, and classes will resume on Monday.
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