Venetian Causeway between Miami, Miami Beach reopens after cops clear suspicious package
This story has been updated.
The entire Venetian Causeway was closed Wednesday afternoon for the investigation of a suspicious package.
At around 9 p.m. Wednesday, Miami police deemed the area safe and said the causeway would reopen.
“The suspicious package has been investigated,” said Miami police Commander Freddie Cruz in a video posted on Twitter. “There has been no explosive device found.”
Miami police were alerted to a suspicious item in a car parked in the garage of The Venetia, 555 NE 15th St., the first building west of the Venetian Causeway, which connects downtown Miami and the South Beach area of Miami Beach.
Area streets were closed while robots with cameras were used to examine the situation, but no one had been evacuated from the building as of 5:50 p.m. The restaurant at the top of the building, Mike’s at the Venetia, was on lockdown, as were all the residents, a bartender who answered the phone told the Miami Herald.
“This is going to take a few more hours,” Miami police Commander Freddie Cruz said in a tweet at 5:42 p.m. “We ask everyone to have patience and seek alternate routes. We are not letting anyone in or out of this area.”
On Tuesday, security at the neighboring Marriott hotel told police they were concerned about the contents of a customer’s bag. The relationship of the two incidents, if there is any, was unclear.
Earlier in the day, Miami-Dade police closed a section of Miami International Airport for about an hour when alerted to a suspicious person. The plane and the man’s luggage were checked before the area was reopened around 3:30 p.m.
Miami Herald staff writer Carli Teproff contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 6:31 PM.
