Shooting near campus of Miami Norland Senior High leaves student critical, police say
A fight just off the campus of Miami Norland Senior High on Tuesday afternoon escalated to gunfire and left a juvenile clinging to life, police said.
Police hadn’t released many details as of Tuesday evening. Miami Gardens Police Spokeswoman Carolyn Frazer said the shooting victim was a student at the high school, but that she didn’t know if the fight began on campus.
“We know there was a fight prior to shots being fired,” she said.
The victim, according to witnesses, was 16 or 17 years old. The gunman had not been taken into custody by 5:30 p.m. The shooting happened in the backyard of a home adjacent to the high school at 1193 NW 193rd St. The teen, shot twice in the back, was tended to by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Frazer said the shooting happened at 2:45 p.m. in the 19000 block of Northwest Ninth Avenue. She said the shooter is believed to have taken off in a four-door Hyundai Elantra with an easily identifiable feature — its rear bumper was missing. The police spokeswoman said the car’s windows were not tinted.
TOUGH DAY FOR LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLS
Meanwhile, just a few miles south at Miami Central High School, a series of scattered fights on campus between Central students and students from other schools caused chaos on campus and left parents on edge.
Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Edwin Lopez said police were still interviewing the 10 people taken into custody and that no one had been formally arrested by 6:45 p.m. The chief said he expected arrests on charges ranging from burglary to disruption of school services.
Lopez said there was no reason to believe the incidents at Norland and Central were related.
The chief said police still hadn’t determined what sparked the fights and that there didn’t appear to be any weapons involved. He said detectives were trying to figure out why there were so many students on campus from other schools.
Some students told local media outlets that there was a big rush to get off campus after someone yelled they spotted a gun. Several parents said they would keep their kids out of school for the rest of the week.
Christmas break begins for students at the end of next week.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 7:22 PM.
