Cops probing similarities in Allapattah shooting and two earlier Brickell robberies

Last weekend’s shooting of a young Honduran boy and two relatives in Allapattah may be related to two violent attacks earlier this month in the Brickell area — one that ended with a man being shot three times.

In all three robberies, a gun was used. In two instances, a white or silver four-door Chrysler was described as the getaway vehicle. In two of the cases, the attackers were described as a tall and slender man and woman. In a third case, only the man was described.

During two of the robberies, a weapon was fired and four people were struck but not fatally injured. In each instance the robbers demanded personal belongings like wallets, purses and cellphones.

All three robberies took place after dark. Two of them were on a Wednesday, the third on a Saturday.

“There are similarities in the three cases, but they’re not linked — yet,” said Miami police spokeswoman Yelitza Cedano-Hernandez.

The robbery spree — if they’re connected — began just past midnight on Oct. 5 while a man was walking along Southwest First Avenue at 12th Street. He told police that a man and woman, both in their early 20s, both slim, approached him with a gun.

The victim, who said the woman’s speech was slurred, said she ordered her co-conspirator to put the gun against the victim’s head and take his property. After he handed over an MP3 Player and a cellphone, he told police they took off in a gray, four-door Chrysler.

Then a week later at 10:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at almost the same spot, three men described as friends were walking along Southwest First Avenue and 12th Street when a man fitting the description of the Oct. 5 attack approached.

The men, who had just left work, said their attacker jumped out from behind a tree wearing mostly black and demanded personal belongings before firing his gun. One man was struck three times in the upper stomach and lower back, but survived his wounds.

Stolen was a cellphone and a 7-Eleven bag containing chips and soda. Police said the two men who were unharmed ran away while being fired at. They were not hit.

Then Saturday, the attack escalated and made headlines when three people were shot, one of them a child who had been in the country less than one day.

The victims told police that a woman fitting the description of the Oct. 5 attack approached three family members walking along Northwest First Avenue near 34th Street at Roberto Clemente Park in Allapattah.

The woman demanded personal belongings then fired once, striking 12-year-old Delber Camilo Diaz, who had arrived in Miami the same day from Honduras, in the stomach area. Then, after his cousins Jeydin Martinez, 20, and Juan Escobar Castro, 17, dropped wallets and cellphones, the woman fired seven more times.

Martinez and Castro were struck near their ankles. Their wounds were mostly superficial.

The incident and the flashes from the gun’s muzzle were captured on surveillance video taken from a nearby private residence. The video also captures the Chrysler believed used as the getaway vehicle in the attacks passing back and forth in front of the family on Northwest First Avenue.

“They are investigating the three robberies,” Cedano-Hernandez said. “There are similarities in the descriptions of the vehicle and the female.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Cops probing similarities in Allapattah shooting and two earlier Brickell robberies."