SARASOTA, Fla. — Sarasota police are investigating after two teens were shot on Easter.
It happened around 8:45 p.m. Sunday on Maple Avenue near Dr. Martin Luther King Way.
Officers said they were patrolling the area when they heard gunshots. They responded immediately to the scene on Maple Avenue. A short time later, they found a 19-year-old woman with a gunshot wound, according to the police department.
She was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and later released.
Police said they learned a 17-year-old boy was also shot and taken to Blake Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. He was later released from the hospital.
In the shooting incident, bullets also reportedly hit 12 parked cars and two homes.
One of the neighbors, 66-year-old Joe Louis Thomas, said he was making a quick trip to the store with his grandson when the gunfire rang out.
"We get to the corner and all we hear is pow, pow, pow and we take off," Thomas said. "I get back and the whole road was blocked off.
"I couldn't get home or get back in my yard until around 3 a.m. I had to beg the man to let me through so I could go get some sleep because I had several appointments this morning."
He added that he suspected the incident probably stemmed from a grudge.
"Y'all are running around here with these guns and think you are all that but you can't get no respect like that," Thomas said. "Respect is earned and not given so if they want respect they are going to have to give it to receive. If you don't give it, how can you receive it."
Some of the victims were assessing the damage to their vehicles and trying to make sense of things. They are hoping insurance would help with repairs.
"This could've been a lot worse," Genevieve Judge, spokesperson for the Sarasota Police Department, said. "There were a lot of people in this area of North Sarasota on Easter, celebrating the holiday and we're just thankful that nobody was killed as a result of this.
"We hate to hear that two people were injured, teenagers, at that time and we don't want to see this happen again."
Thomas said he and other neighbors are frustrated with the gun violence, especially among young people, many of whom he said have no guidance or supervision and also have access to firearms.
"A person with a gun is a coward," Thomas said. "Learn to fight and get a rear rump whooping and get it over with. You all can squash it like that. But they are running around with these guns.
"What is that going to solve? Nothing but jail time."
Detectives have been interviewing witnesses and asking for any video from home surveillance cameras or cell phones to help with the investigation.
Anyone with any information on this case is asked to Detective Kim Laster with the Sarasota Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at 941-263-6827 or leave an anonymous tip with CrimeStoppers of Sarasota at 941-366-TIPS or online.