Orlando Police arrested a 17-year-old boy early Friday morning after a pair of downtown shootings left two people dead and six others wounded.
Police said nearly 100 officers were on patrol downtown because of the large crowd expected in the area for Halloween and responded immediately to reports of shots fired at Central Boulevard and Orange Avenue. Minutes later, officers witnessed the second shooting a block away just south of Washington Street on Orange Avenue.
Police said Jaylen Dwayne Edgar was taken into custody at the second scene.
Officials have not named the victims but said they ranged in age from 19 to 39. The six wounded victims were said to be in stable condition at Orlando Medical Center.
Police have not identified a motive for the boy’s actions. Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith said that while officers witnessed the second shooting, the first was not observed. It was, however, captured on surveillance video.
“We played the camera back, saw the shooting happen,” Smith said. “We put out his descriptor right away, but the officers saw the second shooting happen because, I mean, you saw there’s like five officers right there looking in that direction when he came and started shooting, and he shot multiple people right there.”
Smith said somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 people were downtown for the fall holiday celebrations, and Orange Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain said Edgar will likely be charged as an adult.
Smith also noted that a change in Florida law allowing anyone to carry a weapon on public streets wiped out the city’s work to secure the downtown area, particularly during events that draw large crowds.
“When the state law changed, you saw that we changed how we did downtown. We could no longer do the dogs (that) we had downtown,” he said. ” … We are working with the city, working with the clubs downtown to figure out if there’s something else we can go to, to sort of keep it secure down there.”
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[Featured image: Orlando Police officers move into the street as Halloween celebrants flee gunfire/Orlando Police Department via WKMG]
