Police – NBC 6 South Florida

The shootout involving high-powered weapons that shook a Miami Gardens neighborhood earlier this week was targeted and gang-related, the police chief said Friday.

Miami Gardens Police Chief Delma K. Noel-Pratt said in a news conference that the public should not be in fear.

“I would like the public to know that they should not be in fear, because as you can tell, it was a targeted shooting,” Noel-Pratt said.

Neighbors around the 4200 block of 196th Street told NBC6 they heard at least 50 rounds fired from high-powered weapons just after midnight Wednesday.

Footage from a resident’s security camera shows a group with weapons standing around the street that night. When a silver Nissan approaches, they start shooting. The automatic gunfire lasted for 18 seconds.

The shooting forced the driver off the road, plowing down a fence. It came to a stop in a man’s front yard. The video shows three people stumbling out of the car, running for their lives.

Noel-Pratt also revealed in Friday’s news conference that there was an exchange of gunfire between at least one person in the car and the gunmen who were standing outside, waiting for it to arrive.

There have been no arrests. Nobody was injured, but residents said the block looked like a war zone with bullet holes in homes, windows, concrete and cars.

“There was like 50, 60 bullets on the floor,” said one neighbor who didn’t want to be identified. “The truck got hit like 12 (times),” he said.

Police said the people inside the Nissan are victims, but they haven’t been cooperative with authorities.

Now police are increasing patrols around the neighborhood.

“This is something that is very concerning to us — this is our community as a whole, this is not something that we take very lightly,” Noel-Pratt said.