MIAMI – Miami police are looking for a gunman who they said shot two people Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of the Miami Princess Hotel.
"(He) puts on a ski mask, approaches her, demands her purse or bag -- when she refused, he shot her in the abdomen," Cmdr. Jose Alfonso said.
Alfonso said the woman was walking from her car when a witness saw a man, who was crouched next to it, putting on a mask and attacking her. Another man walked up moments later, and the witness said the gunman shot him twice in the groin.
Police said the bleeding man gave the gunman his bag, drove his pickup truck 6 miles and called 911 from a parking lot at the Mall of the Americas when he realized he had been shot. He was taken to Kendall Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and released.
Detectives are looking into the possibility that the woman was working as an escort and the gunman might have been targeting her.
"Maybe this individual was targeting the female as she arrived, assuming she would have money, and decided to rob her," Alfonso said.
Authorities said the woman was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, where she underwent surgery.
Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.