8 People Shot, 4 Injured During Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration in Florida

According to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office‘s Facebook page, at least eight people were shot after a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Ilous Ellis Park in Ft. Pierce, FL on Monday.

Chief Deputy Brian Hester stated that at approximately 5:20 Monday afternoon, a disagreement between two parties resulted in gunfire. One victim is in critical condition, while four others were injured as they were fleeing the scene. One of the injured victims is a child and all are expected to survive.

“Today, Chief Deputy Hester and I were honored to be in the Martin Luther King Jr. parade along Martin Luther King Blvd. Sadly, within hours of that parade ending, we are investigating a shooting in a county park located at Avenue M and 13th Street in which 8 people have been shot,” said Sheriff Ken Mascara.

“Multiple people were shot, it sounds like from our initial investigation here on scene there was a disagreement of some sort between two parties, and unfortunately, they chose to resolve that with guns,” said Hester.

“It’s really sad in a celebration of someone who represented peace and equality that a disagreement results in a use of guns and violence to solve that disagreement, and that’s what’s really sad to me about what happened here. And then so many innocent people who were injured or hurt and were not part of the disagreement as well.”

WPBF reported there were more than 1,000 people at the MLK Car Show and Family Fun Day.

Although there are several leads, investigators say there have been no arrests made at this time.