Three people who were ringing in the new year during a pool party at a home in southwest Miami-Dade were hospitalized after they were shot during an early morning robbery, police said.
The robbery and shooting happened just after 3 a.m. at the home at 13416 Southwest 270th Terrace, Miami-Dade Police said.
According to police, the family had just wrapped up their New Year's party and was outside cleaning up when they were approached by three men. The men demanded jewelry and other items from the homeowner, 46-year-old Armando Periera, police said.
Periera gave them his wedding ring and gold chain, but the suspects asked who else was at the house and went to the back yard.
While they were in the back yard, a scuffle broke out and three people ended up shot, police said. The three suspects fled on bicycles.
Nereda Morera, 62, Jayeski Placencia, 38, and Sergio Cardenas Jr., 37, were all shot and taken to Kendall Regional Hospital, where they were expected to survive.
One of the victims, Cardenas, was shot while he was in the pool, police said. His mother, Morera, was shot when she tried to intervene.
"My mother started running saying 'they were gonna shoot my son,'" Morera's other son, Antonio Cardenas, said at the hospital. "They shot her in the stomach, she's gonna be fine because they didn't hit any vital organs."
Antonio Cardenas said his mother was a hero.
"It's heroic, she's that way, most people wouldn't think about it, they just go for it," he said.
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There were children in the backyard during the shooting but none were injured.
"These guys were pretty brazen, they knew what they were going for, they were determined and even if they had to take somebody's life they would have, which obviously they tried to," Miami-Dade Police spokesman Det. Alvaro Zabaleta said. "Thankfully everybody's in stable condition."
Police are still investigating the shooting and are looking for the three suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
