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CityPlace Doral’s Martini Bar shooting: Slain security guard was 23-year-old aspiring police officer

7 victims hospitalized at Jackson, Kendall

DORAL, Fla. – A conflict on Saturday morning prompted a gunman to kill George Alejandro Castellanos while he was working as a security guard at CityPlace Doral’s Martini Bar. He was 23.

Jesined Core and Jeannine Castellanos described Castellanos as the father of a one-year-old girl who worked as the bar’s head of security while he was a Florida International University student working on degrees in biological science and criminal justice.

“He was making the proper procedures in order to become a police officer,” they wrote on a verified GoFundMe page.

Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez said two police officers at the bar then fired at the gunman, who also died at the bar. The police-involved shooting injured an officer and six civilians.

Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, said a woman and five men were injured and it was too early to tell where the bullets came from.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel took the wounded officer and a civilian to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. The other five were at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was investigating the police-involved shooting, and the Miami-Dade Police Department was investigating the homicide.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office was also at the scene. Lopez said police officers from the neighboring Medley and Sweetwater departments assisted.

Local 10 News Managing Editor Alissa Merlo and Assignment Desk Editor Joyce Grace Ortega and Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.

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About the Authors
Joseph Ojo headshot

Joseph Ojo joined Local 10 in April 2021. Born and raised in New York City, he previously worked in Buffalo, North Dakota, Fort Myers and Baltimore.

Trent Kelly headshot

Trent Kelly is an award-winning multimedia journalist who joined the Local 10 News team in June 2018. Trent is no stranger to Florida. Born in Tampa, he attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he graduated with honors from the UF College of Journalism and Communications.

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