Miami police make arrest in rabbi’s murder

After a beloved rabbi was shot to death walking to temple, a shocked community came together.

Neighbors pooled money for a reward. They went on high alert to help police.

But mostly they wondered who killed a man of faith who wasn’t carrying money as he strolled to synagogue for Sabbath services.

Now they know.

After 16 months of mystery, a DNA match and eyewitness testimony helped identity a 14-year-old student as the killer who gunned down Rabbi Joseph Raksin, who was visiting Northeast Miami-Dade from Brooklyn.

A tense community with at least 10 synagogues in a square mile can now breathe a sigh of relief.

“Everyone was talking about it in shul [temple] this morning,” said Yona Lunger, a Miami-Dade Jewish community activist and member of a neighborhood watch group known as the Shmira Patrol. “It couldn't be better timing then to happen during Hanukkah when each day was a miracle.”

Miami-Dade police arrested Deandre Edwin Charles, now 15, at dawn Wednesday after a grand jury indicted him on first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery.

Visiting from Brooklyn, Rabbi Joseph Raksin was felled with one fatal .40-caliber round to the chest on the morning of Aug. 9, 2014. At the time, Raksin was on his way to Bais Menachem Chabad in the 1000 block of Northeast 172nd Terrace.

In accordance to his beliefs, Raksin was not carrying any valuables on the holy day of rest – but was nonetheless targeted by at least two young men, one wielding a pistol.

“We believe this was a robbery,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle said at a news conference Wednesday attended by police brass, religious leaders and the county’s mayor. “It was a crime of opportunity.”

Said the rabbi’s daughter, Shulamis Labkowski-Raksin: “We want this vicious thug to be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows.”

The killing rocked the tight-knit Orthdox Jewish community in Northeast Miami-Dade, where the devout feared walking to any of the 10 synagogues in the neighborhood while pooling $50,000 for a reward leading to an arrest. In New York City, hundreds mourned at services for the slain rabbi.

The arrest — on the third day of Hanukkah — delivered a a sense of relief for many who had wondered whether the rabbi was targeted because of his faith.

The arrest capped an exhaustive 16-month investigation in which homicide detectives combed through cellphone records, tested evidence for DNA and even relied on a sketch drawn by a neighbor who saw the gunman running from the scene.

Miami-Dade prosecutors declined to reveal more details about the evidence in their case. Exactly where the DNA was found at the crime scene, and how detectives obtained a sample from Charles, remains shielded from the public as detectives look to build a case against others believed involved in the killing.

“Turn yourselves in or we will come get you,” said Juan Perez, Miami-Dade police’s acting director.

Prosecutors Michael Von Zamft and Marie Mato on Tuesday secured a grand-jury indictment on Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, the Norland High student was arrested at his home in Northwest Miami-Dade.

Charles refused to talk to homicide detectives and was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

His family told reporters Charles was home at the time of the shooting.

“He was home at the time. His whole family knows that,” stepfather Willis Archibald told reporters. “They are pinning this on a young teenager that has a lot of issues but this is ridiculous. I am 100 percent sure that he is innocent.”

State records show Charles has one arrest on his rap sheet.

In August 2012, Miami Beach police arrested Charles and another teen for grand theft after they were accused of stealing a man’s wallet off an Ocean Drive restaurant tabletop. What punishment, if any, remains undisclosed because most juvenile court records are private.

“There are too many guns, and too many young shooters on our streets,” Fernandez Rundle said.

Charles will likely make a first appearance in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Thursday. He is charged as an adult.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Miami police make arrest in rabbi’s murder."