A homeowner who was arrested after he shot one of two teens he encountered at a vacant property in North Miami Wednesday is a long time veteran of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, officials said.
Authorities said the man, 47-year-old Frantz Noel, came home for lunch and heard a noise in the backyard of the property next to his home in the 1500 block of Northwest 121st Street.
Noel went to check it out and encountered two 16-year-old boys. An altercation ensued and one of the teens was shot in the chest, officials said.
The teen who was shot was taken to a nearby hospital. Police said he was awake and alert but his exact condition was unknown.
"At this point we don’t have that they were related. We don’t believe they knew each other, but what we do have was they were in the yard next door and that’s when he went to see what was going on. He was doing the neighborly thing," North Miami Police spokesperson Natalie Buissereth said Wednesday.
But later Wednesday, Noel was arrested on several charges, including attempted second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, records showed.
According to an arrest report, Noel accused the teens of stealing his bicycle, and when they tried to leave, he fired two gunshots into the ground.
He also made one teen call his mother while being held at gunpoint and told the teen's mother to come over or he would shoot the teen, the report said.
Noel told detectives he felt threatened and was standing his ground since his bicycle had been stolen the previous day, but there was no evidence the teens were involved in the bicycle theft, the report said.
Noel was being held Thursday on $51,000 bond. Attorney information wasn't available.
Local
MDCPS communications officer Daisy Gonzalez-Diego confirmed to NBC 6 that Noel has been employed for 19 years with the district and that they will move to terminate him immediately.
Records showed Noel is a language teacher at Van Blanton Elementary, where he's worked since 2005.
