Suspect arrested in Doral shooting that killed woman and wounded handyman, police say
A 45-year-old man was arrested in the double shooting that left a woman dead and a man hospitalized in Doral, police said Friday.
Miguel Felix Hernandez was taken into custody Friday morning by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper in Lake City, near Jacksonville. He was taken to the Columbia County Jail to be booked on a Miami-Dade arrest warrant on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder, according to an arrest affidavit.
He will be brought back to Miami-Dade, police said.
A Florida Highway Patrol trooper found Hernandez running on Interstate 10 near mile marker 312 early Friday, his blue Mini Cooper nearby on the westbound shoulder, with hazard lights flashing. The trooper stopped to talk with Hernandez and found him to be “extremely erratic,” the report says.
The trooper did a records check and saw Hernandez had been reported missing late Thursday. He had made “threats of violence and self-harm,” and was considered “endangered,” by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
The trooper took Hernandez back to his car and then did a license plate search. That’s when he learned the Mini Cooper was connected to a homicide investigation in Miami-Dade. Hernandez lives in Gibsonton, just south of Tampa. Hernandez was then taken into custody and his vehicle and two cellphones were stored as evidence.
Police believe Hernandez is the man who shot and killed a woman and badly injured a man she was with around 8:41 p.m. Thursday inside a home in the 8600 block of Northwest 98th Avenue, in the gated Grand Bay Estates neighborhood in Doral.
Investigators say a handyman, accompanied by a 58-year-old woman, was working inside the home. At some point, a 45-year-old man, believed to be Hernandez, arrived and asked the homeowner for the woman by name.
When the woman went to the front door, the two began arguing. It escalated and the man took out a gun and shot her, police said.
Police say he then went into the home and shot the handyman. Then he left. The homeowners were not injured.
By the time Miami-Dade Fire Rescue arrived, the woman had died from her injuries. The handyman, who police say is in his 40s, was airlifted to the hospital in critical condition. Police have not disclosed either of their names.
It’s still not clear if the handyman or the woman were related to the homeowners or if they knew Hernandez. Police are also still trying to figure out if he climbed the wall or followed the victims into the gated community.
Anyone with information that can help with this investigation is asked to contact Miami-Dade CrimeStoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477).
This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 7:39 AM.
