A fatal shooting started over ‘staring’ in Hialeah. State drops case amid self-defense claim.

Miami-Dade prosecutors have dropped the murder case against a 19-year-old Hialeah man who shot and killed a motorist after the man “was staring at him” at a gas station in August, a shooting captured on surveillance video.

The State Attorney’s Office on Friday declined to pursue a charge of second-degree murder against Eduardo Macias, saying it could not disprove that he was “acting in self-defense” when he shot Orestes Betancourt Carmona. The reason: a gun was found in the wheel well of Betancourt’s car, suggesting he’d been armed when he got out of his car to confront Macias, according to a final memo on the case.

Macias is still being prosecuted for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

“Ed was acting in self-defense. The portrayal that Mr. Macias was a crazed killer was in no way supported by the video,” said defense lawyer Andrew Rier, who represented him along with Matthew Rogoff and Fallon Zirpoli.

The shooting happened Aug. 7 at the Citgo gas station on the 2100 block of West 60th Street, just before 9 p.m.

Eduardo Macias was in the back seat of a BMW filling up at a Hialeah gas station. Next to him was Betancourt, who was in his own car. The two did not know each other.

Macias began to yell at Betancourt “for staring at him,” according to the police report. Video surveillance shows Betancourt inched his car as they appeared to jaw at each other through the window. Then Betancourt, surveillance video shows, opened his door and stepped out toward the BMW — and suddenly crumpled as Macias opened fire through the open window.

The surveillance video does not show Betancourt’s hands because the view is obstructed by the car door.

Macias was arrested three days later, after he barricaded himself in a Hialeah condo.

According to an arrest report by Hialeah police, Macias agreed to speak to police and said he “observed the victim reaching into his front waistband. However, the defendant advised he did not observe a firearm or any weapons in the victim’s hand as he [began] to shoot.”

But according to a prosecution memo on the case, as police officers were towing the vehicle, a “loaded firearm” fell out of the rear driver side wheel well. “The only way for the firearm could have gotten there is if the victim placed the firearm in the wheel after he was shot,” the memo said.

Under Florida’s Stand Your Ground self-defense law, a citizen has no duty to retreat before using deadly force to counter a threat.

This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 5:22 PM.