FORT MYERS, Florida--Florida police said on Monday they had taken three people into custody but were searching for additional suspects in connection with a shooting outside a nightclub just after midnight that left two teenagers dead and more than a dozen people wounded.
The shooting took place shortly after 12:30 a.m. EDT on Monday in the parking lot of Club Blu, which was hosting an event open to teenagers, the Fort Myers Police Department said.
Police said Stef'An Strawder, an 18-year-old high school basketball star, and Sean Archilles, 14, were killed. Two other people were critically wounded.
Police officials in Fort Myers, located on Florida's Gulf Coast, said terrorism was not a factor in the state's latest outburst of gun violence this summer, but provided no details about a possible motive. The three young men were arrested after fleeing the scene in two vehicles and were charged in connection to that pursuit, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted on Facebook.
According to the statement Derrick Church, 19, was charged with assault on a law enforcement officer after accelerating his vehicle toward a sheriff's deputy. Church was shot in the stomach by the deputy during that altercation, but was treated and had been released from a hospital, the sheriff's department said.
Demetrius O'Neal, 19, and Tajze Battle, 22, were taken into custody on suspicion of resisting arrest, according to the statement.
Officers responding to the shooting found chaos at the scene. Officers provided first aid to victims, bandaging some with tourniquets to stop bleeding, he said. Paramedics took some victims to the hospital while others drove themselves. At least 19 people, ranging from 12- to 27-years-old, were treated at local hospitals, said Lisa Sgarlata, chief administrative officer for Lee Memorial Hospital.
Three patients remained hospitalized at Lee Memorial as of Monday afternoon, two of whom were in critical condition.
