Authorities on Friday identified the suspects and victims in the thwarted kidnapping plot that ended in a fatal police-involved shooting in Homestead.
Miami-Dade Police say 17-year-old Xavier Valdes and 18-year-old Luis Mir-Borjas, both of Miami, were kidnapped by a group of at least six people earlier this week.
On Wednesday, family members of Valdes and Mir-Borjas walked into a police station to report the kidnapping and told authorities the abductors demanded $250,000, police said.
Police investigated the abduction through the night and their investigation led them to a home at a trailer park at 220 Northeast 12th Avenue in Homestead Thursday morning.
According to Miami-Dade Police arrest affidavit, when officers got there, they spotted one of the victim's cars being driven by two of the suspects and pulled them over.
While police were interviewing the suspects, one of the victims managed to escape and ran to a nearby market. Police arrived and interviewed the victim, who told them he had been kidnapped at gunpoint and was being held by five men in a trailer, the affidavit said.
The victim told police he managed to escape when the three armed men in the trailer fell asleep.
When the victim led police to the trailer, officers found the suspects and the second victim, who was bound and gagged, the affidavit said.
While officers searched the trailer, they were confronted by 21-year-old Damaris Jaramillo, who was armed with a handgun. Jaramillo was shot and killed at the scene, police said. No officers were injured.
A total of five men who were at the scene were taken into custody and are now charged with armed kidnapping and first-degree felony murder, police said.
They're identified as 25-year-old Carlos Morillo; 17-year-old Joe Manuel Cotte Vasquez; 18-year-old Roman Valentino Villaceres, Jr.; 19-year-old Alain D. Perea; and 26-year-old Dexter Deon Marshall.
According to police, Marshall lives at the Homestead trailer park where the victims were found. Jaramillo was his girlfriend.
Police said Valdes and Mir-Borjas were both beaten by the suspects and were taken to a nearby hospital. Miami-Dade Police spokesman Det. Javier Baez said Friday that the two had been released from the hospital.
Baez said the victims aren't related but are friends and were kidnapped at the same time. He wouldn't say whether the victims knew the kidnappers but said police are still investigating the incident.
