VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — You may see a large police presence on Daytona Beach’s beach side this weekend.
The county and city will make changes following last weekend, when hundreds of people gathered in the streets during Orlando invades Daytona, resulting in fights and a shooting.
The city is putting up fencing and instituting travel restrictions on A1A during peak hours, and foot traffic will be restricted by the bandshell and boardwalk.
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Also, parking will be paid for when you arrive instead of when you leave, to help traffic flow better.
Police Chief Craig Capri told Eyewitness News they would instead rely on intel to determine the kind of staffing levels they’ll need in case of anymore large-scale events, and that the fencing would likely be there all summer.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said that extra police presence would be seen throughout the county.
“There’s going to be a lot of police out that you may not be accustomed to see or may not have seen since the early or middle 2000s,” he said.
Helicopter video from the scene shows hundreds of people flooding the streets, and some climbing on top of cars. At one point, a man passed out cash for a music video shoot.
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Witnesses said they saw fights break out and two people geting shot. A few were hit by debris during a shooting up the street.
Daytona Beach’s Starlite Diner is just a block north from where it all went down.
Kevin Gelnaw owns Starlite Diner just down the road from where it happened.
“I’m just happy it never made it up this far,” he said. “Another block and ahalf and it would have been trouble for us.”
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Still, he remains optimistic.
“It’s Daytona -- events are going to happen,” he said. “You just hope they are organized properly or there’s a police presence.”
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