Woman killed in shooting was unintended target of teen on bike, Miami cops say
.jpg "Miami police arrested an 18-year-old man in the shooting death of Desiree Gonzalez, 39, who was killed while leaving the Habibi Mini Market in Little Havana on Dec. 27, 2025.")
A woman who was shot and killed while walking out of a Little Havana convenience store in late December was the unintended target of a teen on a motorized bicycle, Miami police said.
The young man accused of pulling the trigger, 18-year-old Jeferzon Mendoza, was arrested Thursday on a first-degree murder charge.
On Dec. 27, Desiree Gonzalez, 39, was walking out of the Habibi Mini Market at 1810 Southwest Third Street shortly before noon when she was shot in the neck. Paramedics took her to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she died the next day, according to police.
Police say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that the intended targets were two males walking on the sidewalk.
Detectives watched security-camera footage that was from the store and showed two males on two motorized bicycles approach two males on foot. After words were exchanged, the males on the bikes stopped, pulled out guns and began shooting at the other two, according to police.
The males on the bikes then rode away, detectives wrote in Mendoza’s arrest report.
Minutes before the shooting, police received a 911 call about a fight between 10 males. From camera footage in the area, detectives identified one of the males who was targeted in the shooting, according to the report.
The footage also shows two males on motorized bikes traveling westbound on Southwest Third Street from 17th Court toward Habibi Mini Market, the report states.
Detectives interviewed the other 18-year-old man they say was on one of the bikes. What he told them was redacted from the report.
On Tuesday, detectives reviewed Mendoza’s cellphone records, which they say placed him at the location of the shooting at the time Gonzalez was shot, the report states.
On Friday, Mendoza was being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on the murder charge as well as an attempted-murder charge stemming from a Jan. 22 incident in which he’s accused of opening fire on a group of teens near Northwest 75th Street and Second Avenue.
