Police have arrested a 15-year-old suspect in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old last Wednesday at a northwest Miami-Dade apartment complex.
Officers arrested the 15-year-old Monday and charged him with second-degree murder. The teen was arrested at his home in Fort Lauderdale and booked into the Miami-Dade Juvenile Assessment Center.
According to an arrest report, the teen got into an argument with the victim - identified as 17-year-old Cairi McNear - in the courtyard of the apartment complex located in the 7100 block of Northwest 14th Place.
The 15-year-old pulled a gun out of his pants and shot McNear several times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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After receiving several tips, Miami-Dade Police and Fort Lauderdale Police officers went to the teen's home Monday and he was taken into custody. The teen told investigators he argued with the victim before the shooting and later fled the scene on a mini bike.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the life of one of our youths violently taken away before he could fulfill all of his dreams”, MDPD Interim Director George A. Perez said. “I am extremely proud of our Homicide investigators’ tenacity and the partnership with our community, whose tips were instrumental to identifying and arresting the individual responsible for this murder."
Footage from last Wednesday showed officers outside the apartment complex after the shooting, which was closed off by yellow police crime scene tape.
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At one point, a distraught woman was heard screaming "I want to see my baby!" repeatedly to officers.
The teen's grandmother said she had been supposed to take him to school.
"I don't know what happened. I just know I was going to take him to school and he changed his mind and said he was going to get a ride here in the Lyft, then next 30 minutes I hear this happened," Anna Darden said after the shooting.
