TAMPA, Fla. — One person died, and six more were injured after a shooting in Tampa early Sunday morning, Tampa Police Department (TPD) said.
TPD stated that just before 3:00 a.m., they responded to a report of shots fired by the LIT Cigar & Martini Lounge on North Franklin Street.
"Last night I was parking, heard about 10 gunshots, people running, screaming," nearby resident and witness, Eric Smith, said.
When officers arrived, they found one man who had already died from an apparent gunshot wound.
"My apartment is facing where it happened. You can see the body from my apartment," MJ Speckert, another witness, added.
There were also six more victims with non-life-threatening injuries. The four men and two women were transported to nearby hospitals.
An investigation found that two large parties got into a verbal altercation inside the cocktail bar.
After both parties were escorted outside, the altercation escalated, and one suspect allegedly went to a car to retrieve a gun and fired multiple shots after.
"My mom woke up for it... It was so loud she thought people were banging on our balcony somehow and then she heard blood curling screaming," Speckert explained.
Speckert told ABC Action News that she works directly across from the scene and was there just hours after chaos erupted.
“They came in crying. I gave them water, tissues, let them use the bathroom. I asked one girl who looked really freaked out what happened and she told me, she is the bride’s sister and her boyfriend is the one person that died," Speckert recalled.
We've reported on two other shootings in this area in the last ten months. Back in January two people were taken to the hospital after they were shot outside club Eden. In February, in the same area, two others were shot, one of which died.
"I just moved here and I just started working here and I don’t have a commute to work. I don’t have a car so I have to work here and here and if I'm unsafe just walking across the street to work how else, what other job am I supposed to get, how am I supposed to stay safe?" Speckert explained.
Detectives are working to develop leads with witnesses at the scene. No arrests have been made yet.
However, in a press conference Monday Chief O'Connor said she feels confident this case will end successfully.
"This is senseless violence. There's no reason why anyone should lose their life over a fight at a bar," Chief Mary O'Connor said.
This is the third shooting that has occurred in Tampa in less than a week after a family of five was targeted in a random attack on Wednesday, and another man was fatally shot on Friday.
