A mother has told how she received the 'worst phone call of my life' from her son, who was shot at a rap concert by three gunmen who fired a hundred rounds 'indiscriminately' into the crowd.
Two people were killed and at least 25 injured when the three shooters jumped out of an SUV and opened fire at the El Mula Banquet Hall in Northwest Miami-Dade in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Angelica Green told how she waited impatiently outside a hospital in south Florida for hours on Sunday, for any information on her 24-year-old son, who was shot in the abdomen.
'He was telling us if something happens to him, that he loves us,' she told NBC Miami. 'We said, 'We love you too, but you're gonna survive this.'
Her son was attending the concert with her husband and nephew, she told reporters, but did not name them.
Her husband was uninjured, but her nephew was shot four times.
Angelica Green recounted how she received a call from her 24-year-old son early on Sunday telling her and her husband that he was on his way to a local hospital for gunshot wounds
The shooting occurred at a banquet hall that was being rented out for a rapper's birthday
Her husband told him to 'stay with us,' she recounted.
'He's not a statistic,' Green told CNN of her son. 'He's a graduate from college last year. So he's educated. He was going out with his cousin to just celebrate the weekend, and they had not made it into the club as of yet.'
She said her 24-year-old nephew was also shot, she said, and suffered 'pretty massive wounds.'
Two others died in the shooting at the banquet hall, where a local rapper was celebrating his birthday. At least 25 people were injured.
More than 12 victims were brought to six different hospitals in the Miami-Dade and Broward County area, and three are in critical condition, with two currently on life support, Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo "Freddy" Ramirez told ABC News Sunday afternoon.
More than 12 victims were brought to six different hospitals in the area
Family members waited outside for hours for information about their loved ones
At one point, the family members formed a prayer circle outside the hospital
The attack appeared to be targeted, police say, and they are now scrubbing through surveillance footage from the exterior of the banquet hall in an attempt to identify the three suspects who opened fire at the rap concert.
Police said the three suspects pulled up to the El Mula Banquet Hall, which was being rented out for a local rapper's birthday party, in a white Nissan Pathfinder early Sunday morning and waited outside for about 40 minutes before opening fire as the party-goers were leaving.
They were armed with assault rifles and handguns, Ramirez said, and fled the scene. Police were still searching for the SUV Sunday night.
They requested help from the community to identify and arrest the shooters, with American businessman and philanthropist Marcus Lemonis tweeting that he will contribute $100,000 for information that leads to capture and arrest of the shooters.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to contact CrimeStoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477) or (866) 471-8477.
Police Director Alfredo Ramirez III said he believes the attack was targeted, and police are now searching for the suspects and their white SUV, which they used to flee the scene
Authorities said they have collected about 100 shell casing from the scene, where, police say, some party-goers returned fire.
'I am at the scene of another targeted and cowardly act of gun violence, where over 20 victims were shot and 2 have sadly died,' police director Alfredo 'Freddy' Ramirez III tweeted.
'These are cold blooded murderers that shot indiscriminately into a crowd and we will seek justice. My deepest condolences to the family of the victims.'
Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo called for the justice system to 'throw the book' at criminals caught with illegal firearms.
'Most (of) these cowardly misfits don't fear death, they do fear long prison sentences,' Acevedo tweeted Sunday morning.
'Firearms belong in the hands of law-abiding Americans of sound kind, more (must) me done to keep them out of the wrong hands.'
Two people were dead at the scene of the shooting and three are in critical condition
Police recovered almost 100 shell casings from outside the banquet hall, where party-goers fired back at the three suspects
Acevedo called for 'serious prison time' for anyone caught using a firearm during the commission of a crime.
He also called for Congress members to 'come out of their own corners — the left and the right — and come to the middle where most Americans are' in addressing gun violence on CBS' Face the Nation Sunday.
'We need to have universal background checks, we need to make burglarizing these licensed gun stores a federal crime with mandatory sentencing, and we need the federal government and both sides to address this issue,' he said 'because without legislation, without certainty as it relates to holding these criminals accountable, we're never going to get through this summer with much more death and destruction.'
The mass shooting Sunday morning was the second to occur in Miami this weekend.
On Friday, one person was killed and six others were injured in a drive-by shooting.
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