Two men were apprehended at Miami International Airport Thursday and charged for the shooting of a Hialeah woman that left the victim in critical condition.
Hector Ledesma and Ralph Benjamin are being held without bond and face charges of premeditated attempted murder.
Video surveillance later revealed that the two suspects had been travelling in a dark-colored BMW when they drove to 59-year-old Carmen Ramirez's workplace at 820 East 41st Street around 10 a.m. Tuesday. As she went up the stairs of the building to her dentistry, Benjamin approached her with a firearm and shot her several times, hitting her face, neck, chest, and limbs, according to the report.
Footage shows Benjamin running back towards the car, being driven by Ledesma, and the two flee.
When the Hialeah Police Department arrived at the scene, officers discovered Ramirez laying on the staircase with multiple gunshot wounds throughout her body, lying in a pool of blood, according to the report.
She was airlifted to Ryder Trauma, where she remains in extremely critical condition due to one of the bullets having struck part of her heart.
Police investigations found that Ramirez had been victim to an identity theft case in Orlando in 2015 for which Ledesma's brother, Jose Ledesma, was on trial. She was serving as the "star witness" in his case, according to the arrest report, given that Jose Ledesma allegedly defrauded over $40,000 from her and her dental office.
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Neither of the two suspects live in Miami-Dade; Ledesma resides in Orlando, and Benjamin in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to police. The pair had purchased one-way tickets to the U.S. Virgin Islands Wednesday and were attempting to flee the country when police apprehended them at MIA the following day.
