Man charged in murder of ‘Tik Tok Princess.’ Six-year-old shot at Miami birthday party
More than two years after a little girl who liked to play dress-up princess was killed in a hail of gunfire at a friend’s birthday party, police have made an arrest.
And the man suspected of killing 6-year-old “Tik-Tok Princess” Chassidy Saunders in January 2021 is well known to law enforcement. Warneric Anthony Buckner has not only been in federal prison the past six months on an identity theft conviction, he is also suspected of wielding a rifle in one of the worst mass shootings in South Florida history.
Buckner, 22, is currently serving 30 months in West Miami-Dade’s Federal Correction Institution. Though federal documents list him as Anthony Warneric, several law enforcement sources have confirmed it’s the same man suspected of taking part in the Memorial Day 2021 mass shooting outside the El Mula banquet hall in which 23 people were shot, including three who died. Miami Police said they will ask that he be transferred to state custody to stand trial for Chassidy’s murder.
In a prepared statement, Miami Police Chief Manny Morales said Buckner has been charged with a single count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
“While we recognize that nothing can bring back Chassidy, the Miami Police Department’s homicide unit has successfully established sufficient probable cause to charge Mr. Warneric Anthony Buckner with Chassidy’s murder,” the chief said. It wasn’t immediately clear if Buckner had retained an attorney on the new charges.
The exact details of the arrest remain sealed and haven’t been made public. That usually means police expect more arrests in the case and that there is information on the charging document that could harm the case if it gets out. Shortly after Chassidy’s death the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office was made aware of a possible conflict of interest in the case, which is now being prosecuted by the Broward County State Attorney’s Office.
Chassidy lost her life on Jan. 16, 2021, when witnesses said, a car drove up to a home hosting the birthday party in the 5500 block of Northwest Sixth Place and unleashed more than a dozen rounds of gunshot. Multiple law enforcement sources said the targets were a man and his girlfriend in a blue Hyundai outside the home — and that Chassidy was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Chassidy and her family were just leaving the party when they were caught in the crossfire. Two adults who survived, were also struck. Somebody at the party returned fire. A teacher at Opa-locka’s Beacon College Prep Elementary, where Chassidy attended Kindergarten, called the child’s death “heartbreaking” and said he saw “sweetness and innocence” in her eyes.
Chassidy’s death shook a community that has suffered far too many child murders over the decades, from 9-year-old Sherdavia Jenkins 2006 killing on her Liberty City doorstep, to the Overtown shooting death of Marlon Eason, 10, as he chased a basketball in his yard, to the 2018 murder of 6-year-old King Carter as he headed to the store to buy candy.
Chassidy’s family was devastated. Her grandmother Sharon Cullins told the Miami Herald that it’s “very hard to wake up every day.” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava had press conferences denouncing the gun violence.
Buckner was perhaps the highest profile arrest made in connection to the 2021 Memorial Day Weekend shooting at El Mula as the crowd was exiting a song release party. t Covered in white outfits and wearing ski masks, Buckner and two others are suspected of getting out of a Nissan Pathfinder and opening fire on the crowd with semi-automatic rifles. Police believe the shooting was an escalation of gang violence in the county’s north end.
Five months later in October, Buckner confessed to being a passenger in the front seat of the SUV and told police he was “armed with a large firearm.” Later, however, prosecutors determined that Buckner had invoked his right to counsel before making the recorded statement. They said the confession could be “subject to suppression” by a judge and deemed inadmissible.
The state chose to drop the case in December 2021 and Buckner was spared three counts of murder and 20 counts of attempted murder and released from jail. Killed in that shooting were Desmond Owens and Clayton Dillard III, both 26, and Shankquia Lechelle Peterson, 32.
