MELBOURNE, Fla. – Melbourne police are investigating three drive-by shootings that injured five people on Sunday.
According to police, the first shooting happened just before 2 a.m. in the 3300 block of Testimony Street. Officers said a group of people were gathered on the when an unknown vehicle drove by and fired shots toward the group.
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Investigators said one person in the group returned fire “with their legally carried handgun” as the vehicle drove off. Officers said several homes and vehicles were hit by gunfire.
Neighbor Lavon Rawls said he heard the shots.
‘’And I looked and the car comes speeding around the corner. Prior to that, they shot again, probably about five or six times,’’ Rawls said.
As police investigated the shooting, officers heard more gunfire coming from the 1200 block of E. University Boulevard. There, officers said they found a 29-year-old man who said he had been shot by someone driving by his house.
Around that time, police said they received reports of two men — ages 21 and 23 — showing up at a hospital after they were hurt in the Testimony Street shooting, along with two women — ages 26 and 38 — who were hurt in the East University Boulevard shooting.
Police said all of the victims are expected to be OK.
Later in the day, around 4:43 p.m., police responded to another shooting in the 2800 block of Colbert Circle. The victims, a 19-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman, said they were in the driveway of a home when a light blue SUV pulled up behind them, according to a news release. A man got out of the SUV and started shooting at the pair, police said, but the pair managed to run away without getting hurt.
A Melbourne police dispatcher relayed details of a 911 call.
‘’We have a (woman) stating that an unknown subject in a blue or gray Hyundai just shot up her car as her daughter was trying to get into it. We did confirm that nobody was shot,’’ the dispatcher said.
Melbourne police are working to learn whether the shootings are connected.
Anyone with information on the attacks is asked to call police at 321-608-6450.