Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer on Friday issued a local state of emergency prohibiting businesses in downtown Orlando from selling alcohol after midnight. He also instituted a curfew between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. in the downtown entertainment area. The state of emergency is in effect until Friday, November 8.
The move is a response to shootings that killed two men in downtown Orlando Halloween night and injured seven others were injured by gunfire in two separate shootings involving a single gunman.
A tenth person was injured when she was trampled by the crowd, according to the Orlando Police Department.
The two men who were killed were 19 and 25 years old.
The others who were shot -- three men and three women -- range in age from 19 to 39. They were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center and, as of Friday morning, were in stable condition, according to OPD.
The first person was shot at Central Boulevard and Orange Avenue at about 1:07 a.m. Friday, according to OPD.
Officers witnessed the second shooting minutes later on Orange Avenue south of Washington Street. It involved multiple gunshots.
After that, officers quickly arrested the 17-year-old male suspect. OPD announced early Friday afternoon that the suspect, Jaylen Dwayne Edgar, is being held on two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm and six counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.
OPD released video from the scene that shows hundreds of people milling about downtown, many of them in Halloween costumes. A man walking through the crowd appears to casually raise a pistol and shoot someone.
Another video clip shows officers surrounding and detaining the suspect after the second shooting.
Police Chief Eric Smith said Halloween is one of the busiest nights downtown and nearly 100 officers were patrolling the area at the time.
Smith said the shooter's motive was not immediately clear.
"Whatever his mindset was, he was going to shoot no matter what," Smith said in a Friday morning press conference. "He walked by multiple officers. We followed where he came from. He walked by at least 10 officers, walked directly by them. Kept moving past the officers so he knew what he was going to do, what he thought his mind was going to do."
Smith said security cameras enable investigators to track the shooter's movements from a parking lot through the crowd the whole way.
State Attorney Andrew Bain said charging the underage suspect as an adult was "definitely something that's on the table, obviously, from multiple victims and the brazen nature of the crime." But that decision, he said, will follow the initial investigation.
The mass shooting comes amid ongoing efforts by the city to make downtown safer, including a ramped-up police presence underwritten by bar owners.
Smith said a previous policy with checkpoints and police dogs screening for weapons had to be canceled because of changes in state law. Last year, the Florida Legislature voted to let people carry a conceal gun without a permit.
