Police have located the SUV used by three gunmen in a mass shooting outside a Miami rap concert — submerged in a canal which is well-known to locals as a dumping ground.
Cops told reporters at a press conference Monday that the stolen Nissan Pathfinder used in Sunday’s violence outside the El Mula Banquet Hall in northwest Miami-Dade County was recovered about 8 miles away from the shooting scene.
Neighbors told local broadcaster WPLG-10 that the canal is a “notorious dumping ground.”
The SUV had been reported stolen on May 15, police said.
Investigators believe the mass shooting — which killed two people and wounded 21 others — was connected to an ongoing rivalry between two groups.
The target or targets of the gunfire were out front of the banquet hall when the shooting barrage started, the Miami Herald reported.
The organizers of the event billed it as an album release party for rapper ABMG Spitta, WPLG reported. The rapper, who was shot in the ankle, was one of the wounded victims, authorities have said.
Miami-Dade police also released surveillance footage of the three suspected shooters getting out of the SUV while wearing masks and carrying a handgun and assault-style rifles.
The suspects then ran out of the camera’s view as they headed to the banquet hall near the County Club of Miami, where they fired dozens of shots, the Herald reported.
Some in the crowd also returned fire, the outlet said.
Other surveillance footage obtained by the newspaper reportedly showed the SUV slowly driving through a parking lot before the mass shooting erupted.
Seventeen victims, including five women, remained hospitalized Monday, including three in critical condition, WPLG reported.
A $130,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the ongoing investigation, the station reported.
The victims ranged in age from 17 to 32 years old, WPLG reported.
The father of a 26-year-old man broke down in tears at the scene Monday, saying his son was one of the two people killed by the suspects Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez has characterized as “cold-blooded” killers.
“I need to hold him,” Clayton Dillard said of his son, Clayton Dillard III. “I need to hold him. You killed the wrong kids!”
Another 26-year-old man was also killed in the mass shooting, WPLG reported.
Anyone with information about the shooting should call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-8477.
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