An anti-gun activist was shot dead while on vacation in Miami outside the restaurant where fashion designer Gianni Versace ate his last meal.
Lavon Walker, 30, of Brooklyn, New York, was shot twice early Sunday while standing on a sidewalk outside the News Cafe on Ocean Drive, Miami Beach police said.
Walker was pronounced dead at a Miami hospital, police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez told The Miami Herald. No one else was injured.
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| Lavon Walker (above) , 30, of Brooklyn, New York, was shot dead while on vacation in Miami. |
But several witnesses were at the scene of the crime in the minutes after the shooting at around 7am, Local 10 News reports.
On Tuesday, at least two men were being held in custody and questioned at Miami Beach police headquarters, according to the Herald.
It came after police recovered the Jeep Cherokee they believe was the getaway vehicle in the shooting.
Walker, married father-of-two, had advocated for years against guns and violence, according to former co-workers.
The former outreach worker at the Crown Heights Mediation Center had been on vacation in Florida, according the center's director.
'It was the anniversary of a family member's death. He was trying to get away for a little while,' Amy Ellenbogen told the Herald.
Walker was shot twice early on Sunday while standing on a sidewalk on Ocean Drive.
He is survived by two young sons, eight-year-old Lavon Jr. and five-month-old Matthew, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise funds to help his family.
A post on the page said Lavon 'was an an incredible friend, mediator, youth minister, and most importantly, husband and father.'
It adds: 'Lavon was a passionate advocate against gun violence, and his friends and family will continue to work for peace in his name.
'Please help us support his family and his sons, who are left with this terrible loss. With your help, they will grow up in the healthier, safer world that Lavon fought to make possible.'
Walker had volunteered for years with a New York group, Save Our Streets, which advocates against gun violence, Ellenbogen said.
A 2010 New York Times article quoted Walker as saying he was one of four volunteers who would speak with young people in areas where there had been shootings.
'We find out what their needs are, anything that's going to gear them or shift them to a different mentality toward gun violence,' he told the Times.
'We become like their bigger brothers, even closer than their fathers.'
Walker told Al-Jazeera in 2014 that he volunteered because he had spent his youth selling drugs, robbing cars and stores and fighting with gang members.
The Herald reported that Walker appeared to have no criminal history in New York, but any juvenile records would be sealed.
Police have not announced any arrests or motive in the shooting outside the News Cafe.
The restaurant is infamous for being the site of Gianni Versace's last meal in 1997 before he was murdered by a serial killer on the steps of his mansion a few blocks away.
Detectives have recovered a Jeep believed to be involved in the shooting, and they have detained 'multiple persons of interest' in Miami who are cooperating with the investigation, Rodriguez said in an email on Tuesday.
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