‘Not going to put up with shooting up the park.’ Keys drug deal leads to serious charges
Florida Keys prosecutors have charged a 16-year-old Homestead boy as an adult in a shooting during what police say was a drug deal in a Key Largo park.
The teen is accused of firing two shots from a .45 caliber handgun on Aug. 16 into a car driven by a man who Monroe County Sheriff’s Office detectives say was at Key Largo Community Park to sell him marijuana.
The man in the car, Charles Perez Cabrera, 23, was not hit. But when he got out of his car to get the license plate number on the Hyundai in which the shooting suspect was a passenger, the teen hung out of the front-right window and opened fire again, Cabrera told police.
But prosecutors say the outcome could have been tragic with the number of bystanders that afternoon at the popular park at mile marker 100.
“I’m not going to put up with people coming here and shooting up the park, and in front of the children’s swimming pool,” Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward said this week. “We could be attending a funeral now.”
Detectives found two bullet holes in Cabrera’s car. Cabrera’ cellphone was also stolen during the chaos. He called 911 to report the incident on his work phone, which was inside his car.
Anton Lavar Clayton made a first formal court appearance Tuesday on attempted murder and robbery with a firearm charges. Prosecutors filed the information charging document on Aug. 21.
“If you’re going to conduct yourself like that, you’re going to prison for a long time,” Ward said.
Clayton, through his public defender attorney Jerome Gilhooley, entered a written not guilty plea on Tuesday. Gilhooley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The teen remains in police custody, Adam Linhardt, sheriff’s office spokesman, said Thursday.
According to Detective Deborah Johnson’s report, a Key Largo woman asked Clayton and another teen, referred to as BW in the report, to take the bus from South Miami-Dade to Key Largo to visit her at Mariners Hospital in Tavernier. BW, who ended up driving to the park, told detectives the woman asked him and Clayton to take her Hyundai and get her “some weed,” Johnson said.
Clayton contacted “weed man” via SnapChat and set up a meet at the park, according to the report.
Reached Wednesday by phone, Cabrera denied he was at the park to sell the boys drugs. He then hung up the phone.
Johnson’s report does not mention any drugs being found, and Linhardt declined to comment on the case.
Ward said Canbrera is a “cooperating witness” and the amount of marijuana in question is less than 4 grams, possession of which is a misdemeanor.
“He is the victim in this crime. We’re dealing with the more serious offense,” Ward said.
BW drove Clayton in the Hyundai to the park and backed into a parking space closest to the playground, according to Johnson’s report. Cabrera pulled his car next to the Hyundai.
BW said Cabrera rolled his window down, and Clayton walked over to his car. BW said he stayed in the Hyundai until Clayton asked him to come out and smell two samples of marijuana. BW told Clayton which one to buy and got back into the Hyundai, he told Johnson, according to her report.
Right after he got into the car, BW said he heard a loud “boom.” He put the car in drive and took off, before realizing Clayton was not in the car, so he drove back to pick him up, Johnson said.
Once in the car, Clayton leaned out of the passenger window, and BW told police he heard another “boom.”
BW said he drove to a vacant waterfront lot, and Clayton got out of the car and tossed the gun into the ocean.
Deputies stopped the Hyundai as it headed north on the 18 Mile Stretch of U.S. 1, which is the main artery leading in and out of the Keys, and arrested Clayton.
At the sheriff’s office station, he at first denied knowledge of the incident, Johnson said. But, soon after, he told another detective that he had the .45, shot it once in the air while standing in the parking lot and twice more from inside the Hyundai, according to the report.
He also said he took Cabrera’s phone and that he threw the pistol in the ocean, Johnson said.
