What started off as an argument over a parking spot ended in a fatal shooting in Hialeah Sunday afternoon.
Neighbors told NBC 6 that one gunshot broke the silence in the quiet Hialeah apartment building along W. 3rd Avenue, shortly after 2:30 p.m.
"I saw a whole bunch of cops and a fireman,” said one neighbor.
That’s when they saw the body of a woman lying in the hallway. Family and friends identified her as 52-year-old Lourdes Torres.
"I went to see and then I saw the gun on the floor. I saw a lady, not her body, but a foot, with a blanket over and they had the caution tape all over the place,” said Jonathan Tijuan, a neighbor.
One woman said Torres was a close friend. She spoke with the victim minutes before the shooting.
“I started calling her to ask her what was going on at her building, but she didn’t answer the phone,” said Maritza Gonzalez, the victim’s friend. “How could I have imagined that Lourdes was dead?”
Witnesses and people familiar with the situation said it all started with an argument over a parking spot.
Torres' boyfriend said the dispute had been ongoing and involved a neighbor.
The neighbor who fired the fatal shot allegedly tried to drive away from the scene on the 900 block of West 3rd Avenue. He didn’t get far, though and is now in police custody.
Police identified him as 72-year-old Jose Suarez. Suarez is facing a second-degree murder charge and was being held without bond Monday.
NBC 6 saw the victim’s husband at the scene talking to police. He was distressed and was shouting about the situation with the parking spaces.
