With nine people wounded, two fatally, police called it one of the largest mass shootings in Miami history.

But the weekend *lo** bath in Liberty City -- triggered by a mystery gunman who unleashed a hail of bullets on a street dice game -- underscored the same themes woven through much of Miami's urban violence, big or small.

Guns, poverty, lack of jobs and education, black-on-black violence, little cooperation with police -- familiar themes highlighted anew Saturday at a news conference organized by city leaders.

''This is a sick situation,'' said Rev. Jerome Starling, a firebrand activist. ``Last night was a terrible night in our community.''

Both young men slain were teenagers: Brandon T. Mills, 16, and Derrick ''Termite'' Gloster, 18.

The two teens were part of a large crowd of about 50 people who gathered around a street craps game Friday evening on Northwest 15th Avenue just south of 71st Street.

The games had been going for hours, witnesses said, first in the parking lot of a dilapidated three-story apartment building known for drug sales. Then it moved across the street, next to Brewton's grocery store.

There, Kenya Coles, 25, and her sister had gone to pick up potato chips and soda. As they paid at the counter, Kendra said she noticed a man outside pulling a gun from his waistband.

''Big, like an AK-47,'' she said.

Just before 10 p.m., the attacker ambushed the crowd with the weapon. Past a small apartment building and the Pavilion Laundromat, a second burst of gunfire erupted behind the Miracle Fry Conchfritter eatery.

Joan Rutherford, 45, was warming up chicken and rice at her next door apartment. She dived to ground, then ran outside along with more onlookers.

One teen lay on the ground, gasping for air, cash clenched in his fist, Rutherford said.

''His face was totally gone. The aroma of *lo** was in the air,'' she said. ``I've never been in the service, but it was like c****at, like Vietnam.''

One of the wounded teens was Andrew Jackson, 16, shot in the buttocks. He lay on his stomach on the sidewalk when his mother came rushing to him.

'He was just calling out to me, `Mommy! Mommy!' '' said mother Danielle Coles, 45.

Hundreds gathered on the street. Patrolmen, some called in from other city patrol zones, rushed to control the crowd.

The two teens were declared dead immediately.

The diminutive Gloster lived with his grandmother, Brenda Estinat, 53, in a modest pink house just blocks from where he met his demise.