Man charged with shooting in Miami apartment fire, convicted of attempted murder in 1990s
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Miami apartment complex goes up in massive flames, displaces dozens of residents
Miami’s Temple Court Apartments was set ablaze by a man who, only moments before, allegedly shot a building worker. A massive blaze engulfed the building, causing severe structural damage and displacing over 40 people.
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The man charged with setting a four-story Miami apartment complex on fire Monday morning and shooting a worker there, spent almost eight years in prison for attempted murder in the 1990s.
According to Juan Francisco Figueroa’s 1991 arrest report, his car had been towed and he didn’t have the money to retrieve it. So, the report said, Figueroa asked an employee at Nolan’s Towing if he could work at the yard long enough to pay the cost of the tow and retrieve his vehicle.
After being told to leave the premises, the arrest form says, Figueroa returned with a handgun. But his wayward aim at the tow company employee struck another man, twice. Thirteen months later, state court records say, Figueroa accepted a plea deal for charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault and a nine-year prison sentence. He served seven.
Public records also show that since the late 1980s, the Puerto Rican-born Figueroa was arrested by Miami-Dade Police on a separate aggravated assault and battery charge and another time in Miami for burglarizing an unoccupied structure.
Figueroa, 73 and dressed in a green-padded vest to prevent him from possibly harming himself, appeared in court for the first time Tuesday morning and was denied bond by Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy Glazer. The suspect made his appearance on Zoom from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Glazer denied bond on arson and attempted murder charges and set a $7,500 bond for Figueroa’s possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and while committing a felony. A Miami-Dade public defender’s brief attempt to get a bond set on the arson count was quickly denied.
“He came from his apartment and he had wounds on his hands,” said the judge. “He burnt the building down and displaced many people.”
Figueroa, who is believed to have shot a man named Feder Biotte, 30, in the stomach and set fire to the Temple Court Apartments at 431 NW Third St., near downtown Miami, was taken into custody by police later Monday afternoon after they spotted him driving his maroon Honda Accord not far from the crime scene.
READ MORE: Police take custody of man who they say shot another, ignited apartment fire in Miami
Police said they found a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun in the vehicle and ammunition. Figueroa, who lives in apartment 307 of the building that he is charged with burning down, spent several hours at Miami Police headquarters with detectives before being formally arrested late in the evening, according to police.
He’s been formally charged with attempted murder, first-degree arson and displaying a firearm while committing a felony. Figueroa’s arrest report says he told police that he expected to be in prison for the rest of his life.
Police said Biotte, who was found with a gunshot wound to the abdomen on the sidewalk in front of the building, repeated the number 307 to them in Spanish, before being whisked away to the hospital. He’s undergone surgery and police said he’s in critical condition.
The intense 3-alarm fire that required 126 firefighters to put out the stubborn blaze and displaced about 50 people, according to city officials, blanketed downtown Miami with thick smoke for hours, causing havoc during the rush hour and forcing some downtown offices to send workers with asthma and other illnesses home.
Clarification: An earlier version of this story said Figueroa had been arrested in 1991 on a murder charge. It was an attempted murder charge.
This story was originally published June 11, 2024 at 9:52 AM.
