2 Persons of Interest in April 5 Shooting Surrender After Standoff: Miami Beach Police

Investigators wanted to interview them in connection with the homicide of Robert Lakatos, police said

Miami Beach Police said Wednesday night that two persons of interest in a recent slaying who barricaded themselves inside a home surrendered peacefully at about 10:30 p.m.

Police said they set up a perimeter in the the area of Hawthorne Avenue and 79th Street before they went to talk to the two males, whom investigators wanted to interview in connection with the homicide case of 16-year-old Robert Lakatos.

But when they went to interview them Wednesday night, the two males ran into a home between apartment buildings and barricaded themselves there for about three hours, police said.

Miami Beach Police called their SWAT team to the scene and asked for assistance from Miami-Dade Police’s K-9 unit and a helicopter, Miami Beach Police spokeswoman Vivian Hernandez said.

Five people were inside the home, two of them the persons of interest, and all are being detained, police said.

Lakatos was gunned down on the boardwalk near 79th Street just before midnight on Thursday, April 5 in an attempted robbery, according to police. He wanted to be a model and had just moved here from Virginia.

The standoff Wednesday night brought the residential neighborhood around 79th Street to a standstill.

“I got in late last night and then checked out the beach and everything, and now I can’t get home,” said one Australian tourist who was locked out of his friend's apartment.

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