A wanted flyer distributed by a Miami Springs detective for two strong-arm robbery suspects eventually led Miami Beach Police to identifying and arresting the pair for a murder in their city.

    According to Springs Detective Ray Tamargo, 19-year-old Cristian Ivan Perez of Hialeah and 23-year-old Yorisane Lazo of Miami are suspected of beating and robbing a 51-year-old man on the pedestrian bridge in the first block of Canal Street.

    A Jan. 23 police report said the man was waiting for a friend at the bridge around 9:40 p.m. when he was beaten and kicked in the face by a male and a female. The victim said the pair, along with another female, took his cell phone, wallet and fanny pack.

    At the police station, the victim picked Perez and Lazo from a photo lineup. He said he knew Perez as “Chris” and Lazo as “China.” Tamargo put together a probable cause to arrest flyer that was distributed through the Miami-Dade Robbery Clearinghouse. Tamargo also gave one to a friend with the Hialeah Police warrants unit and the officer passed the flyer to a crime suppression squad.

    “That evening I got a call from Hialeah Police and Miami Beach homicide detectives who were interested in my flyer,” said Tamargo. “They had a case on the Beach with similar circumstance and the victim eventually died. The officers were at an Okeechobee Road motel and questioning a male and a female. By chance, the Hialeah officer had my flyer and the pair was arrested.”

    Miami Beach Police charged the pair with murder and robbery and transported them to the County Jail. The following day Tamargo interviewed the pair in jail.

    “Both gave me written confessions to the robbery here in the Springs,” said Tamargo. “Yorisane gave me the name of the other female who took the victim’s wallet in the Springs case. I contacted her and she also confessed. They seemed scared because of the homicide charges they were facing in Miami Beach.”

    Tamargo said the young women had criminal pasts, but Perez had no criminal record whatsoever.

    “If my buddy hadn’t passed on the flyer, the other detectives wouldn’t have had faces of the suspects they were looking for,” said Tamargo. “It was a stroke of good luck for all of us.”