‘They don’t get justice.’ Mom seeks answers on who killed her son and shot his 1-year-old
Almost a year after her son was shot to death and her 1-year-old grandson was injured outside their Miami Gardens home, Samantha McDaniel feels no closer to the truth.
Her 27-year-old son, Darin Williams, had recently graduated from the fire academy and planned to marry soon. Standing outside his home in the 2300 block of Northwest 187th Street last July — his baby boy Darin III in his arms — Williams saw a strange car pull up to his house. Bullets followed.
Williams used his body to protect baby Darin. He died, and his son was injured.
“He lived,” McDaniel said of her grandson’s injuries. “He’s got bullet fragments in his body. We don’t know if that’s gonna stop him from doing things later. We don’t know.”
With a $13,000 total reward available for any tips leading to the arrest of Williams’ killer, the public has remained mostly silent, McDaniel said. Police continue following leads but have not arrested a suspect.
On Saturday, she met up with friends and family to pass around homicide flyers seeking information on her son’s killer. Walking near the scene of the shooting, where McDaniel lived for nearly 50 years, she avoided her old home and knocked on doors on the outer limits of the neighborhood.
The group of volunteers started at North Dade Regional Library just after 10 a.m. and had planned to knock on doors into the early afternoon. Baby Darin, now 2 years old, joined along.
“Please, let’s just try to get these monsters off the streets so it won’t happen to another family,” she said. “Who would harm a 1-year-old?”
Robert Malone, the executive board member of Community Youth Against Violence, joined McDaniel going door to door. He said the culture of silence among young people in the neighborhoods needed to end.
“Mothers are crying,” he said. “They don’t get justice because no one wants to say anything.”
Anyone who knows anything about this shooting can contact Miami Gardens police homicide detectives at 305-474-6473 (MGPD) or, to remain anonymous, Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477), via text at 274637 with “CSMD” and the tip or via the Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers website.