A Miami-Dade man is facing a murder charge after police said he shot his father to death with an assault rifle as he slept in his bed.
Maurice Wright Jr., 27, is facing a second-degree murder charge in the killing of his father, 50-year-old Maurice Wright, Miami-Dade Police said.
Wright Jr. was arrested Wednesday at a motel in the 6100 block of Biscayne Boulevard.
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Cell phone video obtained by Only in Dade showed several officers with Miami-Dade Police's Special Response Team blowing open a motel room door and taking Wright Jr. into custody.
Police said the murder happened the morning of May 30 at a home in the area of 30th Avenue and Northwest 64th Street.
Officers had responded to the home after receiving reports of an unresponsive man and found Wright lying in bed suffering from a gunshot wound.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded and pronounced Wright dead at the scene.
It was later determined he'd been shot by his son with an assault rifle, police said.
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According to an arrest warrant, Maurice Wright's 82-year-old mother, who lived with her son, had been awakened by a loud noise and found her son unresponsive in bed lying in a pool of blood.
The elderly woman told detectives that her son and grandson had been involved in an altercation in February that resulted in Wright Jr. pistol-whipping his father, the warrant said. That same month, Wright Jr. made threats to "kill the family," the woman said, according to the warrant.
After that, their relationship "changed and became turbulent," the warrant said.
"I love him because he's my brother," said his sister, Marquisha Wright. "But it's like, I hate you because of what you did."
Wright Jr.'s grandmother also told police that he "was known to carry firearms and would shoot the firearms indiscriminately inside and outside of the residence," the warrant said.
In April, Wright Jr. was arrested after a physical altercation with his girlfriend where he threatened to kill her and was in possession of a rifle at the time, the warrant said.
The rifle cartridges he was arrested with at the time matched the physical description of the casings found at the scene of his father's killing, the warrant said.
Wright Jr. had been released from jail on May 20, 10 days before the alleged killing of his father, the warrant said.
Video footage showed a white vehicle fleeing the scene of the murder at a high rate of speed, the warrant said. Investigators learned the same vehicle had been involved in an attempted murder the day before, May 29, where a rifle casing had been collected at the scene, the warrant said.
Wright Jr. was booked into jail, where he remained held without bond Thursday, records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.
