Shooting kills 2 and injures 18 victims in Florida street with hundreds of people nearby

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A fight between two groups turned deadly in Florida when a shooting in a city street resulted in two deaths and 18 people hospitalized early Sunday morning, police said.

Officers responded to the shooting in Tampa just before 3 a.m. on the 1600 block of East 7th Avenue in the Ybor City area, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said during a press conference at the scene.

The fight occurred in an area with several bars and clubs and there were large numbers of late night revelers in the area at the time, Bercaw said. Police were not immediately sure if the people involved in the fight were inside any of the bars before the shooting.

“It was a disturbance or a fight between two groups. And in this fight between two groups we had hundreds of innocent people involved that were in the way,” Bercaw said.

He did not provide details of the injuries suffered by the victims taken to area hospitals.

One suspect turned himself in to police, and investigators believe there were at least two shooters involved, Bercaw said.

Police are still investigating the reason for the fight between the two groups, he said.

Officers were at the scene at the time of the shooting but none were injured, Bercaw said.