Before Solomon Stinson allegedly shot at cops, he pointed a gun at woman’s face, cops say
It’s not clear why former Miami-Dade school board member Solomon Stinson was in a Miramar neighborhood Sunday afternoon, but a newly released arrest report by Miramar police sheds light on how the 81-year-old’s alleged crime spree began.
He was linked to the Miramar incident after police say he wreaked havoc in Pembroke Pines, shooting at a parked car, leading police on a chase, opening fire on cops and then crashing in an area with thick brush. Pembroke Pines has charged Stinson with attempted murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and fleeing, among other charges. By Tuesday night, Pembroke Pines had not released his arrest report, citing an open investigation.
It was not clear Tuesday if Stinson, who was being held involuntarily at Hollywood Memorial West Hospital, had been transferred to jail.
The Miramar arrest report said Stinson had been taken to Broward’s main jail, but his record did not show up in the jail’s online database.
Stinson, Miramar police say, was driving in Miramar’s Monarch Lakes community in his four-door white Cadillac at around 3:30 p.m. Sunday when he began honking his horn at a couple unloading their car.
The woman, according to the arrest report, had just returned home from a vacation with her husband and was unloading their car when she heard the horn and approached the car.
She later described the driver as a black man with “curls down his shoulders with a red tint to his hair.”
The man rolled down his driver’s side window, didn’t say a word and pointed a gun at her, police said.
“She screamed to her husband, ‘He has a gun!’ as she ran from the vehicle and took cover behind her vehicle in her driveway,” an officer wrote in the arrest report. “She advised me that she was in fear for her life and felt that she was going to die that very moment.”
Stinson then drove away.
Police were able to get the tag of the vehicle from neighborhood surveillance cameras. The car was linked to Stinson, police said in the report.
After Stinson was taken into custody by Pembroke Pines police, the victim in the Miramar incident identified him, police said.
In addition to the Pembroke Pines charges, Stinson faces an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge in Miramar.
Stinson was a well-regarded educator in Miami-Dade Schools, rising from schoolteacher to deputy superintendent of school operations. He was elected to the Miami-Dade School Board in 1996, serving three consecutive terms before retiring in 2010.
This story was originally published June 4, 2019 at 7:33 PM.
