When officers came knocking on career criminal Johnny Simms' door Thursday to arrest him for the murder of a Miami man last year, the 22-year-old who'd just gotten out of jail decided he didn't want to go back.
For Simms, the murder of Miami-Dade Officers Roger Castillo and Amanda Haworth outside a Liberty City duplex Thursday was the final act of violence for a man who spent much of his life creating it.
"I'm supposed to say hey, we're all children of God and things happen, and I know God was here today and God saw evil and God saw good," said Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus. "That guy is evil. He murdered two of my people today."
Loftus said Simms, who also goes by Sims, has a record that's five pages long. It includes arrests beginning when he was just 14 for larceny, according to the Miami Herald.
In all, Simms was arrested 11 times before he turned 18 on charges including burglary and auto theft, and the arrests didn't stop when he became an adult.
Two armed robberies within two months got Simms arrested in Dec. 2005, and by 2007, Simms was behind bars for a separate '05 armed robbery. When he was released in 2009 on probation, Simms, who sported tattoos of a gun and flames and the words "savage" and "10-20 Life," promptly went back to armed robbery and dealing drugs and was arrested in June 2010.
Sentenced to a year in prison, Simms got out for time served in September, and police say just a month later, he committed murder.
Police say that on Oct. 16 Simms targeted Cornelious Larry at an Overtown apartment complex, gunning him down after Larry had an argument with Simms' sister.
Wanted on first-degree murder charges in Larry's death, Simms was on the run until police caught up with him yesterday and went to serve the warrant at the home on the 6100 block of Northwest 6th Ct.
Police said Simms' mother was at the home, and had let the officers inside when Simms came out of another room armed with a handgun. Castillo was killed at the scene. Haworth was shot several times and was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital where she later succombed to her injuries.
Officer Oscar Placencia gunned down Simms, who, according to witnesses did not die immediately.
One witness said they saw Simms alive, arms raised toward the sky, asking for forgiveness as he lay dying on the ground.
