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Two Seriously Injured In Eatonville Drive-By Shooting

Thursday, September 4, 2008 – updated: 12:33 pm EDT September 4, 2008

Eatonville police were on the scene of a drive-by shooting Thursday morning looking for evidence. Dozens of bullets riddled a neighborhood on Bethune Drive, right off Kennedy Boulevard.

Two people were hit. Investigators were combing the scene as though it were a homicide in case the victims don't make it.

Police insist the shooting was random. Neighbors said there's no way, saying it happened outside a drug house and they want it gone.

A man in his 30s and a 22-year-old woman were rushed to Orlando Regional Medical Center in serious condition. Family members came to the scene just after they heard about it.

"My sister got a call about 2:29 this morning saying her daughter had got shot twice, once in the chest and once in the stomach," said Renee Harris, the aunt of one of the victims.

The man was shot at least three times in the lower part of his body. Eatonville police said the two victims were standing outside of the home on Bethune Drive around 2:00am. Two men inside of a grayish-gold colored car sped by and fired several shots.

"It was a lot of shots. I heard the girl when she fell down and said, 'Oh Lord, please don't let me go like this,'" said eyewitness Marvin Randall.

Police told Eyewitness News they believe the shooting was random. But neighbors, who didn't want to be identified, said the house they were outside of is a known drug house.

Crime scene investigators placed evidence markers on more than a dozen bullet casings. Neighbors said whoever pulled the trigger was shooting to kill.

"We want it wiped out. My mom's room is right there. I ducked in my room. I don't like ducking and hearing bullets flinging along," Randall said.

Eyewitness News checked and police have responded to the home four times in the last year, but never for anything major.

"Everybody has to pay for what they do. You may not pay today, tomorrow, but you will pay," Harris said.

Neighbors said they believe the 22-year-old woman was an innocent bystander. Her family said they're praying she makes it because she has a 2-year-old at home.

Police told Eyewitness News they arrested a man Thursday morning on an unrelated crime, but they are calling him a person of interest in the drive-by shooting.

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