On April 6, 2024, 23-year-old George Alejandro Castellanos was shot and killed at the Martini Bar in CityPlace Doral while working as the venue’s head of security. Castellanos, a Florida International University student studying biological science and criminal justice and a father to a one-year-old daughter, was intervening in a fight among patrons around 3:30 AM when 37-year-old Jamal Wayne Wood produced a handgun and shot him. Wood then engaged officers in a shootout and was killed by responding Doral police; the exchange wounded several others.

A Doral officer, a four-year veteran, was shot in the lower leg and applied a tourniquet at the scene. Six civilians were also injured, including Carlos Milan, who was critically wounded with four gunshot wounds. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Miami-Dade Police Department, and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office are involved in the investigation; neighboring Medley and Sweetwater departments assisted Doral Police.

City officials have called for a review of nightclub ordinances, with Mayor Christi Fraga proposing reduced operating hours and mandatory metal detectors. Questions remain about the bar’s security protocols that night, since the employee normally responsible for pat-downs was absent and replacements may not have been trained to handle such incidents. Did anyone who knew George or witnessed the early-morning fight see events unfold or notice security lapses that night?