Man found dead in SUV near Miami airport, cops say. May be linked to Doral home invasion
A man’s body was found Tuesday morning inside a car parked on a side road sandwiched between the Tri-Rail train tracks and a warehouse complex by Miami International Airport, Miami-Dade police say.
While police originally said the man was shot, during a press conference at the crime scene Tuesday afternoon detectives said the cause of death has yet to be determined, but they do suspect foul play.
“In this case, there is reason to believe this person’s death was due to the actions of another person,” Detective Andre Martin, a Miami-Dade police spokesman, told reporters near the scene of the shooting.
Martin would not confirm, however, if the man, described by police as Hispanic and in his early 40s, had gunshot wounds.
“At this time, the method of death in this case is undetermined,” he said.
The silver SUV was found by Miami-Dade officers around 6:15 a.m., Martin said. They were looking for the car at the request of the Doral Police Department, which was told by the man’s family that he hadn’t been seen or heard from in hours, Martin said.
Miami-Dade police would not confirm that the man’s death is connected to a home invasion earlier in the morning in Doral, but indicated that the possibility is under investigation.
“We cannot discredit whether or not this incident is related to a home invasion within the Doral Police Department’s jurisdiction,” Martin said.
Doral police said the two cases may be connected.
“MDPD is conducting a homicide investigation outside our jurisdiction; however, the case may be linked to a robbery that occurred within city limits,’’ said Doral Police Commander Alicia Neal in a text message to the Herald. “At this time, the investigation is active and no further information is available.”
A law enforcement source said the man was robbed and beaten at a hotel outside of Doral. The people who attacked him then drove to his apartment in Doral and burglarized it, the source said.
When and how the man was killed is still under investigation, the source said.
Martin confirmed that the detectives’ investigation includes several different locations.
“There are a lot of moving parts to this investigation and various locations are being looked at as possibly being involved before our victim came to his final resting place,” Martin said.
Miami Herald staff writer Omar Rodríguez Ortiz contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 28, 2023 at 12:32 PM.
