On Friday, June 20, 2025, in Homestead, Florida, Kristy Garcia, 46, sits beside her brother Bruce Figueroa, 52, and her children Jocelyn Valdes, 17, and Jose Valdes, 25, as they gather near a portrait of Evelyn Valdes, 28, daughter and sister, whose life was tragically taken in a recent shooting on June 14, 2025, in Wynwood, Florida.
Brielle Aguayo
baguayo@miamiherald.com
Evelyn Valdes had one request for her birthday this year: atres leches cake from Pinecrest Bakery.
The 28-year-old social worker spent the occasion toggling between hospitals, rushing from her shift at Baptist Hospital to her 17-year-old sister’s bedside at HCA Kendall Hospital, where she lay recovering from an allergy-induced asthma attack. After a quick rendition of “Happy Birthday” with her teen sister, she swung by her younger brother’s job to pick him up.
A week later, Valdes, known in her family as a giver, was dead after a shooting in Wynwood.
“There’s not a book long enough to explain who my sister was,” said Jose Valdes, 25, Evelyn’s younger brother. “Every person she’s ever met, she’s loved and helped, even if it’s just an exchange of a couple of words.”
Around 3 a.m. Saturday, June 14, officers “confronted” an armed man along Northwest First Court and 23rd Street before “shots were fired,” said Miami police spokesperson Officer Mike Vega.
Valdes — who had just wrapped up a belated birthday celebration in the area with friends, was in a friend’s car and stuck in a gridlocked intersection when she was hit in the crossfire, says her family.
Both she and the armed man, later identified as 30-year-old Norman Lindo Jr. by his family members on social media, were taken to Jackson Memorial’s Ryder Trauma Center where they died, Vega said.
“It was like, 3 o’clock in the morning when I finally decided to get off my [video] game and go to bed,” said a teary-eyed Jose, recalling the night his sister died. “The moment I turned over to my stomach, my mom came in the room on the phone and the whole world changed.”
On Friday, June 20, 2025, in Homestead, Florida, (Left to right) Jose Valdes, 25, Bruce Figueroa, 52, Jocelyn Valdes, 17, Kristy Garcia, 46, and Jocelyn Valdes, 17, sit on the couch while they remember their daughter and sister, Evelyn Valdes, 28, whose life was tragically taken in a recent shooting on June 14, 2025, in Wynwood, Florida. Photo by Brielle Aguayo baguayo@miamiherald.com
A mom remembers her daughter
Valdes, who was born in South Florida and grew up in South Miami-Dade, was the first in her household to earn a high school diploma, graduating from Homestead’s Medical Academy for Science and Technology in 2015, and the first to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree, both in social work from Barry University near Miami Shores. After graduating, she took a job with Kristi House Children’s Advocacy Center, a nonprofit for child victims of sex abuse and trafficking.
She was an innate writer, winning essay competitions in grade school and topping her middle school’s standardized testing scores, and loved to study. Weeks after starting her job as a social worker at Baptist Hospital in April, she was already considering getting her doctorate degree.
“She was like, ‘I’m still thinking about it, but I really want to be Dr. Valdes,’ ” said her mom, Kristy Garcia, 46.
But it was Evelyn Valdes’ generosity that stands out most, her mother said.
“There’s people that I don’t even know contacting me and telling me about my daughter, how they met her, the friendship they had and how she had a heart of gold,” Garcia said.
Valdes loved children, both on and off her job, and was always the first to offer her babysitting services, nicknamed “Titi Evelyn” for her aunt-like nature. Each Christmas, she was considered the “Santa Claus” of her family for how she showed up on many loved ones’ doorsteps with gifts.
To her teen sister, Jocelyn, she was a second mom who doted on her with sister dates and styling sessions. To her brother, she was an academic role model, confessing he passed off a number of her science fair projects as his own, and a relentless advocate for anyone who needed it.
When a coworker of Jose’s, who works in retail sales, was hospitalized for a heart condition, she was quick to set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a life-saving surgery.
“Now he’s living a normal life again, like a normal human being,” her brother said. “That was a big change, that was a big help that she did for him.”
For her mom, Valdes was an answered prayer and companion, born shortly after grieving her own mother’s death.
“We talked on the phone every day, three, four, five times a day,” said Garcia, choking up with emotion. “She made my heart whole again. She showed me how to love and how big love is.”
On Friday, June 20, 2025, in Homestead, Florida, pictured is a portrait of Evelyn Valdes, 28, whose life was tragically taken in a recent shooting on June 14, 2025, in Wynwood, Florida. Photo by Brielle Aguayo baguayo@miamiherald.com
Looking for answers
Instead of the usual condolences, the family says that to honor Evelyn’s memory, they want answers.
Relatives say they’ve largely been kept in the dark by authorities as details like whose bullet struck and killed Valdes remain under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the lead agency in police-involved shootings.
The family’s lawyer, Angelo Martin, is calling on people in the community to come forward with any witness accounts, photos, videos or social media posts from that night in Wynwood.
“We’re going to continue to do what we’re going to do on our end in our pursuit of justice,” he said. “So, whatever the community can do to get us there faster, we would greatly appreciate it.”
In the long term, the family hopes Evelyn’s legacy of charity can live on in the form of a nonprofit for children suffering from mental health issues and abuse, much like those she championed during her short but impactful life.
“I wanted to make so many memories with her. We had so many plans,” said teen sister Jocelyn. “It got taken away from me.”
Isabel Rivera covers the city of Pembroke Pines for the Pembroke Pines News, a sister publication of the Miami Herald. She graduated from Florida International University (go Panthers!), speaks Spanish and was born and raised in Miami-Dade. Her last meal on death row would include a cortadito.
