‘Blacks for Trump’ founder has links to Miami-Dade ‘Boss Mansion’ where man shot dead
A North Miami-Dade home where one man was shot dead and three others were wounded on Easter Sunday night is owned by a religious organization whose colorful and controversial president founded the group “Blacks for Trump” and also once was a member of a notorious Miami cult.
Maurice Symonette — a sign-waving fixture often seen behind former President Donald Trump during televised campaign rallies — told the Herald he regularly uses the acre-and-a-half property called the “Boss Mansion” to host parties intended to promote racial harmony. Some neighbors have reported differing views, complaining of loud music and trash in the adjacent waterway.
Reached Monday, Symonette, 62, said there wasn’t supposed to be a party on Easter Sunday and that he wasn’t there when the shooting happened a few hours after he had told some folks who showed up to leave. Police said the shooting erupted after a fight between two men among a few dozen people at the home.
Symonette said it was the first time someone had been killed on the sprawling waterfront property west of the Golden Glades interchange, which Miami-Dade property records show is owned by tax exempt Boss Group Ministries. State records list Symonette as the group’s president.
“I think there were shots before,” said Symonette, who said he lives there on and off with three other people . “But this is not a hoochie-mamma party. We usually have it once a week or once a month. I’m just trying to stop the race war by bringing people together.”
Symonette most recently made national headlines after Trump announced he was running for president when he created the group “Blacks for Trump.” He was often seen carrying that sign in a prominent spot during Trump’s televised rallies.
He also was in the news in Miami decades ago for his links to one of Miami’s most notorious murder cases. Symonette, born Michael Woodside, and his brother were both members of the Yahweh ben Yahweh cult. He was charged with conspiring in a pair of murders and later acquitted. But the group’s founder, Hulon Mitchell Jr., was sent to prison in 1991 for decades after murder convictions, including one in which a man was decapitated in the Everglades.
Faithful followers or killer cult? A look back at how Miami reacted to Yahweh Ben Yahweh
Woodside said he reinvented himself after the trial, changing his name to his father’s surname, Symonette, and working as a musician and radio host. He also began calling himself “Michael The Blackman.” Symonette, who often preached anti-gay and conservative messages, began making a name for himself while bashing then-President Barack Obama.
His LinkedIn page now claims many other political connections and says he is a radio show host who has appeared on Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck’s programs.
The page includes a picture with Florida Sen. Rick Scott. And it claims he partnered in the past with Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado’s “City of Miami Homeless Veteran’s Task Force.” Regalado said Monday he had no recollection of Symonette but the mayor’s former head of veteran affairs said Symonette did help with veterans. He also supported former U.S. Sen. and conservative political commentator Rick Santorum and he’s been videotaped with his arm around convicted Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio during a failed run for the Senate, when the two were at the border.
In discussing his past with the Herald, Symonette also said he was related to the prime minister of the Bahamas and said his great-grandfather was the infamous pirate Blackbeard. Neither claim could be immediately verified. Blackbeard died in 1718.
FIGHT BROKE OUT
According to police and witnesses, there were a few dozen people at the home when a fight between two men broke out at the South River Drive home late in the evening. Miami-Dade Police, who hadn’t arrested anyone or named any victims by Monday, said someone started firing and both men, one 22, the other 24, were shot.
The 22-year-old was hit in the chest and died at the hospital, according to police. The 24-year-old was hit in the buttocks and survived. Also, a mother and her 14-year-old son, whom she was picking up, were grazed by shrapnel, police said. Their injuries are non-life-threatening.
“We don’t know who shot the gun,” said Miami-Dade Police Spokesman Argemis Colome.
What is ‘Boss Mansion’?
Facebook and Instagram, which refer to the Northwest Miami-Dade property as “Boss Mansion,” call it a performance and event venue. Miami-Dade property records, which show Boss Group Ministries purchased the home in 2014, says it has five bedrooms, a pool and a tennis court.
Symonette’s LinkedIn profile said he has been holding the “Free Jet Ski/Mansion Party” for more than two decades. A March Instagram post by “BossMansion305” to its almost 11,000 followers also says the owners have “Vice City” parties on the property every Sunday, with music, food trucks, artist showcases, twerking contests and jet ski and boat rentals. On April 10, it promoted a spring break unsigned artist showcase and pool party.
A man who lives at the home with Symonette and who identified himself as Azariyah Israel said he has separate for-profit parties at the home every once in a while, and celebrity sightings aren’t uncommon.
Israel said Javari Latre Walker, better known as the rapper Hotboii, has visited. The rapper, who signed contracts with Geffen and Interscope Records, hit it big two years ago when his song “Don’t Need Time” was viewed more than 75 million times on YouTube.
Young Jacksonville rapper SpotemGottem, whose real name is Nehemiah Lamar Harden, is also a frequent guest, Israel said. Also signed with Geffen and Interscope, Harden had a single hit No. 12 on the Billboard chart in 2020.
Harden, 20, also made headlines last year when he was arrested by federal agents in Aventura for his alleged part in an assault case involving a deadly weapon in South Beach earlier in the year. A month after his arrest he survived a shooting on Interstate 95 in which his car was riddled by more than 20 bullets.
COMPLAINTS HAVE COME OFTEN
Apparently, along with the parties have come complaints. Though police initially said they don’t know of any previous problems at the property, neighbors claim to have been voicing concerns about the noise and the mess left behind for years.
Emails received by the Miami Herald Monday purport to show a series of 311 calls to Miami-Dade late last year, with fed-up neighbors complaining about trashed waterways, crowds of people and noise.
“We have sent emails, reported them to the police, to the county and nothing has ever been done about this. These parties on both of these houses go on every weekend. They have armed security guards every weekend intimidating the neighbors,” wrote “the neighbors of Biscayne Gardens,” who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.
Another neighbor, who also asked to remain anonymous, said police had been contacted repeatedly and they were tired of waking up and finding needles and condoms around their home. The neighbor’s wish: “Being able to sleep at night because my house vibrates because of their music.”
That was disputed by some friends of Symonette. One woman who said she’s known him for several years and been to the home many times, said she never saw trash, drug paraphernalia or prophylactics anywhere near the property.
On Monday, Symonette told the Herald he was gone from the home for about two hours when the shooting happened. Later, he called to voice suspicions about the incident and police response because it was so swift. He also said he often sees police parked just a few blocks from his home.
“A detective was there in less than two minutes. How? Now it makes me wonder: Is this some kind of a setup? I mean I believe someone was killed, but now I have to verify it,” he said.
This story was originally published April 18, 2022 at 7:19 AM.
