MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - A Tennessee family is recounting how their visit to the Magic City was kicked off by a terrifying encounter with a gunman firing shots at Miami International Airport.
The family told 7News they were about to get into an Uber, following their arrival on Wednesday, that would have taken them to their cruise terminal when an alarming sound stopped them in their tracks.
“I heard a loud pop, and I look at my father, and we both agree that it’s not a tire, it’s a pistol,” said tourist Joshua Miller.
Miller said the gunman was directly in front of the group huddled in the arrivals section of the airport, 40 yards ahead in an upper-level parking area. His sister, Kayla Bryson, said the weapon was a handgun.
In a video shared with 7News that Miller captured of the incident, he is heard yelling “stay where you’re at” to his group as Bryson huddles with her small children behind a police cruiser.
The siblings’ instincts moved both of them to protect their family.
“I’m grabbing my brother, my girlfriend, my mother, my father,” Miller recalled.
“Our whole family was together,” Bryson said. “I grabbed my son immediately. I had my 7-year-old, my 1-year-old, and I yanked him out of his stroller.”
The family was able to move inside when they believed the shooter was already apprehended. In a video, Bryson is heard saying “I think they got him.”
Bryson, a travel influencer and blogger, posted video of the situation in the immediate aftermath once her family was safe.
“So we were standing right here waiting on our Uber, and we heard three shots go off, and the man was in there,” she said in the video, showing the parking level ahead.
Bryson showed 7News pictures and videos of her children being comforted by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies after the scare.
“God was with us today, and that’s the most important thing I can say,” said Bryson.
As of late Wednesday night, the family is safe at their Miami hotel, and they are scheduled to board their cruise on Thursday.
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