Two gay men and a lesbian were shot and wounded this week in Miami in a bizarre drive-by shooting. The Miami-Dade Police Department said it was not investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, men riding one or more all-terrain vehicles opened fire on a car with the two male victims inside and then fled, according to police.
One of the men was "struck in the head," the other was "grazed in the head" and a woman sitting outside her home nearby was "stuck by a stray bullet," police said.
Clive Khouri, one of the victims, told NBC Miami that he was sitting in his car with his boyfriend when a group of ATV riders surrounded the car and sprayed it with bullets. His boyfriend was taken to Jackson South Trauma Center in critical condition after being shot in the head.
The injuries to Khouri and Shakena Jefferson, the female victim, were not considered life-threatening.
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Khouri told TV station WPLG that he thinks he and his boyfriend were targeted because the gunmen "probably saw us kissing in the car."
"When I tried to speed off to come around this corner, they kept trying to shoot, shoot, shoot," Khouri added.
Khouri's godmother, Lillian Brown, told NBC Miami that she thinks the attack may have been a hate crime. "Everyone that got hurt is gay," she said.
The Southwest Miami neighborhood where the shooting took place, The Hammocks, is not known as an LGBTQ neighborhood.
Jefferson's wife, Janet Medley, said Jefferson "still feels like the bullet is in her head."
"She's been through too much," Medley said.
