2 dead, 6 injured in downtown Orlando shooting; 17-year-old suspect arrested, police say

ORLANDO, Fla. – Eight people were shot early Friday in downtown Orlando, according to police.

Two of the people were killed and six were injured in the shooting, Orlando police Chief Eric Smith said during a news conference, adding a 17-year-old suspect has been arrested.

An emergency call came to dispatchers just after 1 a.m. indicating several people had been shot in the area of Central Boulevard and Orange Avenue, according to the Orlando Police Department. A second call came in from out of Washington Street and Orange Avenue, Smith said.

“Shortly after reported shots fired, a shooting suspect was located and taken into custody at Washington and Orange,” Smith said. “(…) The officers saw the second shots get fired at Washington. Nobody saw the first one on Central. We used the cameras, of course, to see that, play it back. We had that capability to play it back at major intersections. We played the camera back, saw the shooting happen, we put out his descriptor right away, but the officers saw the second shooting happen because, I mean, you saw there’s like five officers right there looking in that direction when he came and started shooting, and he shot multiple people right there.”

At the time of this writing, it’s believed the 17-year-old is the only suspect in the shooting, according to Smith. The teen had previously been arrested for grand theft in 2023, Smith added.

“During this night, we had about 100 officers who are working the detail, spread out as you can see in all the videos, the officers responded very quickly, the officers did a great job. They responded right when they heard the shooting. You know, everybody else is running, they’re not, they’re sitting in position looking for a shooter. They found the shooter. They took him down,” Smith said.

The victims range from 19 to 39 years old, Smith said, adding those who survived were in stable condition at the time of this report.

Anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 people could have been downtown at the time of the shooting, judging by views of the huge Halloween crowds, according to Smith.

Based on current information, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain said during the news conference that it was likely the suspect could be charged as an adult pending further investigation.

Smith referenced changes to state law in explaining why a ban on weapons in downtown Orlando was not in effect at the time.

“I guess you’re talking about what we used to do, the closures, and we had the dogs and all that, it was going on downtown. That all went away when, sort of, the law changed, when the law changed, and basically you can carry a weapon on a public street as long as you meet certain criteria. So when that changed, we can no longer do that,” Smith said. “When the state law changed, you saw that we changed how we did downtown. We could no longer do the dogs (that) we had downtown. Law enforcement always changes. We are working with the city, working with the clubs downtown to figure out if there’s something else we can go to, to sort of keep it secure down there. As you can see with that many people down there, we have no idea what people have, you know, on their person, if they have grudges against somebody, you know, most people are down there to have a great time and of course you always get those few people who come down there who have different things on their mind.”

Watch the news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.