FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Detectives are investigating an early Tuesday morning street shooting in Fort Lauderdale that killed one man and one woman, according to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
Fort Lauderdale police officers and Florida Highway Patrol were investigating the shooting on the westbound lanes of West Sunrise Boulevard between Northwest 16th Avenue and an Interstate 95 northbound ramp.
According to police, officers responded to the shooting around 2:30 am when they found the two victims shot inside a car at the West Sunrise Boulevard ramp to Interstate 95 northbound.
According to Detective Ali Adamson, a spokeswoman for FLPD, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue took 23-year-old Vernaldo Donner and 21-year-old Terri Mckenzie, both of Deerfield Beach, to Broward Health Medical Center, where they both died from their injuries.
Detectives said preliminary investigation revealed that the victims were driving in a 2017 Mercedes Benz GLC 300 when the shooting occurred.
Asking for her identity to be protected, a Coral Springs woman said she spoke to Mckenzie, her youngest cousin, just moments before she was murdered.
“I told her to be safe, that I love her, and then we woke up to this,” she said. “It’s a dream, it’s a nightmare.”
Surveillance video from a nearby business captured police racing west down Sunrise Boulevard after receiving reports of shots fired.
Miriam Bates, a witness, told Local 10 News that after hearing the shots ring out overnight, she decided to stay inside her home and was worried that she too might be hit.
“It was scary,” she said. “It looked like by the time they rode on this street, I heard pop, pop, pop.”
According to investigators, troopers canvassed the area and found 18 bullet shell casings on Sunrise Blvd.
Crews were seen towing the bullet-riddled vehicle away from the shooting scene.
A motive for the shooting has not been revealed.
Detectives encourage anyone who may have witnessed this incident or anyone who may have information to contact Detective Thomas Taylor at 954-828-6673 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-471-8477.
Related traffic alert: Police activity blocks access to I-95 NB at Sunrise Boulevard
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Frine Gomez and Digital Journalist Andrea Torres contributed to this report.