DORAL, Fla. – Crime scene investigators collected 29 spent casings — 22 were 9mm and seven were .40 caliber — after the Saturday morning shootings at Martini Bar in Miami-Dade County, according to Local 10 News sources.
Investigators also found a Springfield Armory XD .40 pistol in the popular bar at 3450 NW 83 Ave., in CityPlace Doral, and the medical examiner’s office took two men’s bodies: Jamal Wayne Wood, who was the bar patron accused of firing his weapon.
The other was George Alejandro Castellanos, who died at the bar after Wood shot him, according to police sources. His family was heartbroken. The 23-year-old father had so many dreams. He was working as the bar’s head of security and was a student at Florida International University.
“I would just want to see him one more time, and just say that I love him. I just want to hug him one more time,” said Miguel Castellanos, his grieving younger brother.
Wood, 37, had gotten into an argument with a woman when a 38-year-old man and the bar’s security personnel moved to intervene. Witnesses told police Wood pulled out a gun.
“Why would he have a gun? It was for something so not serious,” Miguel Castellanos said.
Seven were injured in the crossfire, including a Doral police officer and a security guard who worked with Castellanos, whose co-workers said they loved him very much.
“He was always smiling. He was always just happy. He always just always trying to help people,” Miguel Castellanos said.
Castellanos was the father of a one-year-old girl and he was studying biological science and criminal justice because he aspired to have a career in law enforcement.
“He got the job for her — to help her. She meant a lot to her ... He would do everything for her,” Miguel Castellanos said.
The investigations into the homicide and the police-involved shooting were ongoing on Sunday. This is what police sources reported detectives had so far on the injured who survived:
- The 38-year-old man who intervened first suffered several gunshot wounds and his condition was critical. He was at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital.
- Catellanos’s 28-year-old colleague at the bar was shot in the hand, and a 34-year-old man was injured in the abdomen. They were both in stable condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
- A 30-year-old woman in stable condition, a 57-year-old man in stable condition, and a 48-year-old woman in stable condition were at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital.
During a news conference on Saturday, Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez said the police officer who was injured had four years of experience and was able to apply his tourniquet. Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, said it was too early to tell where the bullets came from.
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.
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