Miami Beach again imposed a curfew Sunday night after a bloody weekend in which two people died during separate shootings and large, rowdy crowds flooded the streets.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said in a video message posted Sunday that the throngs of people, combined with a number of guns, has created a “peril that cannot go unchecked.”
“We don’t ask for spring break in our city,” Gelber said. “We don’t want spring break in our city. It’s too rowdy, it’s too much disorder and it’s too difficult to police.”
The curfew started at about midnight Monday and would be lifted at 6 a.m., the city said in a news release.
Officials may instate another curfew Thursday through March 27, with the restrictions primarily focused on South Beach, the popular tourist spot spring breakers love.
Under the rules, people must clear out of businesses by midnight.
Hotels can work later to serve their guests, but restaurants can only make deliveries.
The curfew doesn’t apply to residents, emergency services, hotel guests and anyone going to and from work.
People who ignore the restrictions could be arrested, according to the Miami Herald.
The city commission will meet Monday to discuss further measures.
The twin shootings happened within days of each other.
The Miami Beach Police said a man was shot on Ocean Drive in South Beach at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
He later died at the hospital.
Meanwhile, cops ran after and chased down a suspect, police said on Twitter.
The alleged shooter was identified as Dontavious Leonard Polk, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, according to news stations citing police reports.
Polk was being held Sunday night on a first-degree murder charge, CBS Miami reported.
Polk was walking with three other men on the sidewalk when he slowly approached the victim and fired at him, according to police, NBC 6 South Florida reported.
The victim fell to the ground and Polk continued to shoot him several times before he fled, police alleged. He was chased down and tackled by police, the news station reported, with a firearm and bullet casings recovered.
The fatal victim in Sunday’s gunfire has not been named. A second person was wounded in the shooting, but was expected to recover, NBC 6 reported.
Two days earlier, one man died and another was wounded when gunshots rang out in the city, terrifying restaurant and club patrons.
Cops found four guns at the scene and held one person, but haven’t released other details.
Neither shooting involved city residents, Gelber said in his video message.
“In both cases, police were literally seconds away from the incidents, and arrests were made within minutes,” the mayor said. “That said, it is clear that even an unprecedented police presence could not prevent these incidents from occurring.”
Last year, the city placed a curfew on the area after another pair of shootings on Ocean Drive.
And two years ago, city police arrested about 1,000 people and confiscated dozens of guns during another particularly unruly spring break.
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