Tally rises to 9 shot with 2 dead in downtown Orlando; 17-year-old suspect in custody
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer on Friday declared a weeklong state of emergency in the city — curtailing late alcohol sales and implementing a downtown curfew — in the wake of a deadly mass shooting downtown during a crowded early-morning Halloween celebration.
Dyer made the surprise announcement hours after suspected gunman 17-year-old Jaylen Edgar was charged with killing two people and injuring seven others in the melee.
As part of Dyer’s executive order — the latest in a series of measures in recent years to stem mayhem in Orlando’s urban core — downtown bars are banned from selling alcohol after midnight and the area is under a 1 a.m. curfew.
The decree is set to expire next Friday at 5 p.m., meaning it will be in effect the entire Halloween weekend, traditionally a raucous time in downtown Orlando. It includes exemptions for those traveling to or from work or home as well as emergency and medical personnel and members of the media. Any extension requires a City Council vote.
“We want a downtown that is fun and vibrant, but we have experienced brazen criminals are willing to shoot and kill innocent victims right in front of our police officers,” Dyer told reporters at the Orlando Police Department headquarters. “Honestly, I am frustrated to have to stand in front of you all to again share the news that we have lost another life due to gun violence.”
The restrictions — and the shooting that prompted them — shattered what had seemed a relatively calm year in Orlando to date, with a homicide tally about half that at the same time last year. The incident also quickly sparked political strife, as Orlando’s top cop said his officers were unable to screen downtown partygoers for guns as they had in previous years because of Florida’s newly permissive laws on carrying concealed weapons.
Gun control advocates denounced the state’s rules in the wake of that news.
Police Chief Eric Smith said officers were on scene immediately at 1:07 a.m. after reports of shots fired at Central Boulevard and Orange Avenue. Minutes later, more shots were witnessed south of Washington Street on Orange Avenue, where Edgar was taken into custody.
Edgar was tackled and handcuffed shortly after the second shooting as he tried to follow the fleeing crowd. He faces two charges of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder, OPD said. The names of the two people killed, ages 19 and 25, have not been released.
“In response to last night’s shooting and to prevent retaliations, we are increasing our downtown detail this weekend,” Smith said. Nearly 100 officers were patrolling the downtown streets during the Halloween celebrations.
Video footage released by OPD contained snippets of images from the shootings.
One taken from a surveillance camera on Central Boulevard showed the shooter firing a single bullet at a man’s head from point-blank range just seconds after appearing to exchange words.
Other surveillance video from Washington Street isn’t quite as clear but shows the moment panicking crowds began fleeing in all directions as several people, who were apparently shot, dropped to the ground. Police have not said what prompted Edgar to shoot.
“I saw him shoot, I saw him shoot,” an officer is heard saying on body-worn camera footage. Edgar — who said, “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me,” as he was swarmed by cops — was wearing a yellow shirt, light blue jeans and a backpack, similar to what the shooter was wearing in the Central Boulevard surveillance video.
Records show Edgar was arrested a year ago for grand theft of a motor vehicle and was sentenced in September, but details of the incident and the sentence could not be learned Friday.
Though OPD has not released the names of victims, Smith said survivors — including one grazed in the head by a bullet — were in stable condition. There was a 10th victim: a 26-year-old woman injured after being trampled by the crowd.
Jordan Booker, 27, was at The Monkey Bar on Wall Street when he and friends saw a crowd of panicked partygoers fleeing the area. After going downstairs he heard at least two gunshots as people evacuated nearby bars.
In the aftermath, his group hustled back to his car. It took longer than usual, as the car was parked near Orange Avenue and Washington Street and blocked by police at the scene. OPD said Orange Avenue was reopened later that morning.
“They already had the guy in custody at the time,” Booker said. “I didn’t see him at all; I saw a couple of the victims that looked like they were shot. It was pretty chaotic.”
Smith said the two people killed were the 18th and 19th homicides recorded in Orlando this year. That’s down from 35 in the same period last year, according to figures obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
It’s also Florida’s 37th mass shooting this year and the third in Orange County, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit defines mass shootings as four or more people injured and killed in a single event — not including the shooter.
Orange County deputies investigated the most recent in April, which killed one and injured three after gunfire was reported on Gamma Drive in Lockhart.
Before that, Orlando police in February investigated a shooting near Iron Wedge Drive and South Lake Orlando Parkway that killed one — 21-year-old James William III — and injured six others. Court records show no one has been charged in the slaying despite several arrests connected to the shooting — including for attempted murder.
A news release from Orlando nonprofit No Limit Counseling and Education announced it’s offering free mental health counseling to anyone affected by the latest shooting. In-person sessions were offered at the Downtown Recreation Center in Parramore into the afternoon Friday, but telehealth sessions are provided “as necessary.”
Anyone in need of those services can call 407-906-0139 or email [email protected].
“During times of crisis, it’s essential that we come together as a community to support one another,” CEO Pernell Bush said in a statement.
City leaders have turned a sharp eye to downtown safety surrounding its nightlife in recent years — spurred by several high-profile shootings.
In August 2022, on Orange Avenue near Wall Street Plaza, seven people were shot and wounded just after 2 a.m. About a year earlier, an Army veteran was murdered on Orange Avenue about 100 feet from where OPD officers were on patrol.
The city has since flooded downtown with cops. On weekend nights when thousands of patrons converge on the neighborhood packed with nightlife, bar and nightclub owners now pay for up to 35 off-duty officers to patrol the Downtown Entertainment Area. They also require security and lighting in private parking lots along with requiring bars and clubs to turn down the volume, enforce occupancy limits and wand patrons for weapons.
Following the 2022 mass shooting, Dyer implemented “controlled entry” checkpoints in the neighborhood — staffed with police dogs and metal detectors to find and confiscate weapons. It mirrored a program the city used previously for major holidays like Halloween and New Year’s Eve, when the neighborhood attracts even larger crowds.
Changes to gun laws by state lawmakers that allow permitless carry in public spaces make such a checkpoint impractical now, Smith said.
“When the law changed and basically you can carry a weapon on a public street as long as you meet certain criteria … we can no longer do that,” he said. “With that many people down there we have no idea what somebody has on their person.”
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