Miami Police are adjusting how they patrol the neighborhood in the wake of two shootings – one fatal – less than a week apart
Two recent shootings – one fatal – near Douglas Road in the West Grove have prompted Miami Police to adjust how they patrol the neighborhood, at least temporarily, Coconut Grove Police Commander Daniel Kerr said this week.
“This is our hot time. The weather starts heating up. Everyone starts getting out. I need a better police presence in the evening and the overnight hours. So I need to start pushing more enforcement out there,” Kerr told members of the Coconut Grove Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association (HOATA) on Monday.
“We have additional resources this week,” Kerr added, attributing the extra manpower to this month’s school break. “You’re going to see a much larger police presence, particularly along Florida Avenue, which is kind of the hub of the problems I see.… So, that whole strip of Florida Avenue is going to be a pretty intense police presence.”
The first shooting happened late afternoon on Wednesday March 19 in the 3700 block of Percival Avenue, near Douglas Road.
“A man was shot, about a block from here,” Kerr told HOATA members at their monthly meeting next to Aldi’s grocery store on Douglas Road.
He identified the victim as an 18-year-old white male from Kendall. He told the Spotlight the shooting was likely the result of a drug deal gone wrong. Police declined to release additional details – including the name of the victim.
“He wasn’t from the Grove, came up here and got into some type of altercation and was shot in the side. The person he was with drove him a few blocks south, stopped in front of Tucker (K-8 Center),” Kerr said. “We attempted to resuscitate him, and he was transported and pronounced (dead) at JMH (Jackson Memorial Hospital).”
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, a Miami Police spokesperson said. Kerr said investigators are making headway.
“There has been significant investigative progress on that case. They are still seeking anyone who knows anything, or has seen anything, or may know what happened,” Kerr said. “I’m hoping they close that one pretty quickly.”
The second shooting occurred earlier this week, on Monday March 24 at approximately 2:16 a.m. in the same neighborhood, a block east of Douglas Road.
“A male in his 30’s was shot, on the corner of Plaza Street and Florida (Avenue). There was an exchange of gunfire between him and someone else, possibly,” Kerr said. “He is still alive, in the hospital. He was critically injured, but he is expected to survive.”
Miami Police have not identified the victim. The investigation into that shooting is active as well, a police spokesperson said.
“Those are two acts of street violence,” Kerr said. “The first one, I don’t believe there’s a threat of future violence against anyone else. I think it was a specific and targeted incident. The second one, there could be a threat of return violence. We just don’t know enough about the investigation yet.”
Kerr promised a heavier police presence as a result of the second shooting.
“There are some really long-term residents that live on Florida and Plaza and those general areas, and it’s almost become an accepted practice that there are guys hanging out and arguing, fighting,” Kerr said. “And that’s just not acceptable.”
“It’s been a rough week,” he added. “It was almost like back-to-back out here, and we had such a good run. We were down 32% on the year for crime. We were doing really, really well. We had very little violence out here, and then just these two incidents threw it right off.”
