Two young girls wounded by gunfire when a lobster theft in Hialeah went awry, police say
A Hialeah woman who drove her two young daughters to the hospital Tuesday morning with gunshot wounds told police a convoluted story about gunfire breaking out at a Liberty City intersection.
Her story, though, didn’t make any sense to police. That intersection has electronic devices that record gunfire and none was detected. And detectives who happened to be nearby didn’t hear a thing.
What really happened, according to two law enforcement sources: The woman, along with a man in the car, were involved in an attempted lobster-theft that went sideways. A security guard at an unnamed Hialeah warehouse fired his weapon at a fleeing suspect who got in the car, striking the young girls in the backseat, ages seven and eight. Thankfully, their injuries aren’t life-threatening.
“She had originally given us Liberty City,” said Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Erin Alfonso. “But when officers asked more questions, she said it happened in Hialeah.”
A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said the cover story fell apart: “They stole a few hundred dollars worth of lobster tails and the security guard opened up on them. Unfortunately, he hit the kids.”
Neither Miami-Dade nor Hialeah police have named the mother or the man they suspect in the lobster theft and no charges had been filed by early Tuesday evening.
The young girls were the fourth and fifth children to be shot since Saturday night in Miami-Dade County — a trend that has inflamed some locals and caught the attention of county leaders, who expressed outrage and upped rewards for the capture of the shooters. In each instance, someone opened fire on a group of people.
On Saturday night four people were shot at a South Miami-Dade house party, including a 14-year-old who police said is in critical condition. Also Saturday night, a gunman pulled up to a home near the corner of Northwest 51st Street and 29th Avenue in the Brownsville neighborhood and fired into a crowd of people in front of a home.
Killed was 7-year-old Alana Washington. A 1-year-old who was shot in the thigh and two adults who were injured are expected to recover. A reward of $42,500 has been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in that case. By Tuesday a GoFundMe page for Alana had raised more than $19,000. The young girl attended a charter school in Northwest Miami-Dade called KIPP Miami.
Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddie” Ramirez called Washington’s death a tragedy but said it’s not a new phenomenon that shooters fire indiscriminately into crowds of people “without any concern for innocent children who are sadly caught in the crossfire.
“Only when those with information come forward, can we solve these cases, bring justice to the victims and rid our community of these dangerous criminals who wreak havoc in what should be a safe place for our children.”
Many details on what actually happened during the Tuesday shooting still had not been released by early Tuesday evening and Hialeah police did not responded to calls.
According to Alfonso, the Miami-Dade police sergeant, the woman told police she was stopped at an intersection at Northwest 19th Avenue and 60th Street near Liberty City when she heard gunfire, turned around and realized her two daughters were shot in the legs. The intersection is only about a mile from where Alana was shot on Saturday.
She said she then rushed them to Jackson Memorial Hospital. There, police questioned the woman until she finally admitted the shooting happened in Hialeah.
Then, the sources said, the woman told the real story: The woman, her two kids and a man — it’s not clear if it was her boyfriend or husband — were at a warehouse somewhere in Hialeah when the man tried to steal some lobster tails. A security guard fired at the car as they tried to drive away. The woman told police she dropped him off somewhere as she raced to the hospital to get care for the girls.
Hialeah detectives were believed to be interviewing the woman well into Tuesday night.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 2:30 PM.
