The 911 calls from the Hollywood Broadwalk shooting show the horrific ending to the Memorial Day holiday weekend: People who heard gunshots fired one after the other and people who saw crowds running across the sand and victims lying on the ground.
The holiday quickly turned into chaos shortly before 7 p.m. when two groups of men started arguing and shooting, injuring innocent bystanders. Six of the nine victims remained in stable condition in local hospitals Tuesday.
A woman staying at the Diane Oceanfront Suites at 1300 N. Broadwalk told a 911 dispatcher that she heard five shots come from the area near Nick’s Bar & Grill at the corner of Minnesota Street — three in rapid succession, a pause and then two more.
She saw a crowd gathered around one person who was shot lying on the ground, she told the dispatcher in a call released Tuesday evening.
“We just ran into the hotel room, and I immediately called you,” the woman said. “People are all hiding up against the walls. There’s a bunch of little kids outside.”
The woman told the dispatcher she saw a group of young men at the scene, and the same group were outside her hotel earlier in the afternoon about 3 p.m. smoking weed and “causing a ruckus.” She reported them to the hotel manager, who asked them to leave, but they stayed near the hotel, the woman said.
“Those are all the guys that are standing over there right now,” the woman said. “They were kind of causing a ruckus earlier over at our hotel.”
“Again, I don’t know if they’re exactly involved with what’s going on, but there are people I saw here causing a ruckus earlier and now they’re around where a ruckus is going on right now,” the woman said later in the 911 call. “So I don’t know if you can look at cameras from here and see if they have anything to do with what’s going on.”
Another man who called 911 said he saw two women who were shot. A third person to call 911 counted three victims in front of Ben & Jerry’s and Subway. A fourth caller said one of the victims was next to her on the beach.
“Oh my God, I don’t know what’s going on,” the woman said when the dispatcher called her back, saying they received a call from her.
A man took the phone.
“Come to Hollywood beach, the Margaritaville, please, on the beach,” he said quickly. “They was shooting. I think it stopped, though.”
The dispatcher told them not to hang up.
“The vacation’s over,” the man said in the background of the call.
They weren’t able to give any details of the shooting, only that one of the victims was next to them on the sand.
“I’m not staying here!” the man said in the background. “He got shot, he’s right next to us!”
“God is so good,” the woman said.
“It’s time to go,” the man said to her. “I’m not staying there! It’s time to go. It’s time to go, babe.”
The man yelled at the woman to hang up. The call disconnected.
Another man gave few details before sharing the same sentiment.
“There was a shooting here,” he said, near Johnson Street about a minute or two earlier. “I heard it. It was about, like, a couple hundred feet from me, and a whole bunch of people ran up to the ocean.”
He gave his name and phone number, then said, “All right, let’s get out of here, bro.”
The two men in custody were identified Tuesday evening as Morgan Deslouches, 18, of Hollywood, and Keshawn Paul Stewart, 18, of Dania Beach.
Deslouches is facing charges of grand theft of a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm and altering the identification of a firearm, according to a probable cause affidavit. Stewart is facing a charge of carrying a concealed firearm.
On Monday night moments after the shooting, a woman waved down an officer and pointed out a group of six men walking near Connecticut Street and said they where at the shooting scene, a probable cause affidavit said. Deslouches was arrested near Connecticut Street and had a loaded gun with its serial number scratched off in a black bag.
Stewart was arrested while walking in the area of 1200 North Ocean Drive early Tuesday morning. During questioning at the police department, he admitted to having a gun in his backpack without a license, the affidavit said.
Both remained in the Broward Main Jail on Tuesday night.