Two people were killed and multiple others wounded following a shooting early Tuesday in Miami's Liberty City neighbourhood, police said.

Miami City Manager Daniel Alfonso said the dead include a 20-year-old man and a teenage girl. Police officials say a 17-year-old girl was critically wounded in the shooting which happened near an intersection around 2:30 a.m. ET

"It's very early in our investigation," police spokeswoman Frederica Burden said. "I'm not sure how it occurred. We're investigating it now. I don't know if they were all outside standing, some in a car, some not in a car. I don't know that yet."

Liberty City is a historically low-income neighbourhood plagued by violence and shootings. Last April, a gunman opened fire into a crowd outside a corner store killing a woman and wounding two men.

Miami's City Manager, Daniel Alfonso, said at the scene that they were going to reassess their strategy against crime. "We are going to work with our law enforcement partners to make it better," he said.

A police official said that recently six more officers and a canine unit had been assigned to the neighbourhood.

The sidewalk was littered with dozens of spent shell casings marked by green police cones and shattered glass by mid-morning Tuesday. People standing nearby said they were afraid to talk about the shootings.

'They treated him like a dog'

A crying woman was comforted by others. "My baby ain't deserved this. They treated him like a dog," she yelled repeatedly.

One resident, Jose Hernandez, said gun violence is an almost daily occurrence in the area.

"I have friends who have been killed," Hernandez said. "This violence has to change."

A Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said she couldn't release information, including how many people were brought there. She also said the patients had chosen not to release information about their medical conditions.

The Miami Herald newspaper said 10 people were shot.

Police were asking anyone with information about the shootings to come forward.