Chilling footage before three gunmen opened fire at birthday party
Authorities in the US have released chilling CCTV footage showing the moments before three gunman opened fire outside a function hall in Miami, killing two men and injuring 21 others.
The gunmen remain on the run following the shooting on Sunday (local time), which authorities said has spread terror and grief through the community.
On Monday, police released a snippet from surveillance video that showed a white SUV pulling up in an alley near the event centre where the shooting took place as a crowd lingered outside the venue during a birthday party concert.
Three men dressed in black and wearing black bandanas across their face can be seen jumping out of the vehicle. Two are holding what police described as "assault-style rifles" while the third brandished a handgun.
Seconds later the gunmen sprayed bullets indiscriminately into the crowd, police said, even though they had specific targets in mind.
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The video shows the three men returning mere seconds later and driving off into the darkness in an incident described by authorities as "an act of domestic terrorism".
Police posted the footage on Facebook overnight, attracting more than 22,000 views in the first eight hours at the time of writing.
The SUV used in the shooting was later found on Monday submerged in a canal about 13 kilometres away.
It is one of the worst mass shootings to take place in South Florida in recent memory, as a string of mass shootings in recent months continues to increase pressure on the new Biden administration to achieve meaningful gun reform.
Police believe the latest shooting relates to a "beef" between two groups which came to a head over things said in rap songs or social media posts, Alfredo Ramirez III, the director of the Miami-Dade County Police Department told reporters during a press conference on Monday.
"These gun-violence-driven murderers, as it has been said eloquently before me, who are targeting individuals and at the same time hitting innocent people who have nothing to do with their beef, [are] ruining families," he said.
In addition to the two fatalities, three others were in the hospital in critical condition. Because of privacy laws, police did not initially release the names of any of the victims.
Mr Ramirez told The Miami Herald the shooters waited between 20 and 40 minutes before attacking shortly after midnight. Some in the crowd returned fire.
During the Monday press conference, the event was interrupted by a distraught man who yelled out: "You killed my kid with no reason!"
The man, who was escorted away from the cameras, was later identified by police as Clayton Dillard, the father of one of two 26-year-old men who were gunned down.
As investigations continue, a US$130,000 (A$167,677) reward has reportedly been offered for information that leads to arrests.
with AP
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