Posted on 06/02/2003 8:59:28 AM PDT by george wythe
A man apparently outraged by his neighbors' loud music and late-night partying opened fire on a Miami Beach birthday bash early Sunday, killing three revelers and wounding two others, police said.
The spray of bullets silenced the celebration for the wife of one of the victims and sent partygoers diving for cover at about 4 a.m., police said.
Among the dead: two young fathers and a Brazilian woman, hit as she stood partying inside unit 1 at Ronna Apartments, a peach-colored, two story building at 501 77th St.
All of the dead were South American immigrants. All died at the scene, their loved ones crying over their bodies. The suspected gunman, Kevin Evers, who lives in an apartment on the second floor of the building, was later arrested in Broward County.
The injured were taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center. They are expected to recover.
Police said they believed ''loud music'' led to the triple slaying that terrorized partygoers. It was unclear whether Evers confronted partygoers over the music before the shooting, but witnesses said there was an argument.
AT LEAST 9 BULLETS
Bright yellow police cones placed by detectives outside the apartment Sunday indicated at least nine bullets tore into the crowd.
Several neighbors said that a woman who was injured had a baby in her arms when she was shot and that the bullet just missed the baby's head and hit her shoulder.
After the shooting, Evers, 41, ran away. He was later arrested at his parents home in Sunrise, police said. Sunday afternoon, Evers was transported back to Miami Beach police headquarters for interrogation. He faces three murder charges and two attempted murder charges. Evers had no serious criminal background in Florida, records indicate.
But there was a trespassing warning issued against him 10 days ago at a Coral Springs shopping mall, police said.
A NEWCOMER
Evers was a newcomer to the building, which has about 10 units. He had been living there with his girlfriend for a short time, police said.
''He came down here, and got into some type of argument,'' said Miami Beach police spokesman Bobby Hernandez, standing outside the building Sunday morning. ``The subject pulls out a gun and started firing off rounds.''
Hernandez called the shootings the first slayings on Miami Beach this year.
Unlike in the south end of Miami Beach, Hernandez said, police do not field many noise complaints from the area where the shooting occurred and none that night. Police said Evers did not call police to complain about the party.
By city ordinance, music should not be audible within 100 feet of a residence after 11 p.m., police said.
Neighbor Fernández, who lived across the street, said that about 1 a.m. she heard Latin music blaring from the ground floor apartment where the party was taking place.
''It was loud,'' said Fernández, who thought it sounded like merengue, a hard-thumping dance music from the Dominican Republic.
After feeding her baby, she said she went to bed and woke up to the sound of gunshots several hours later. ''It was about six shots, one after the other,'' she said. Other neighbors said they heard as many as 10 shots.
NOTICED THE PARTY
Two other neighbors also noticed the party, but didn't recall the music being particularly loud.
''I was sleeping and first I heard screaming, then the shots,'' Nicolás Fernando-López, who lives in the building next door, said. `It must have been 10 or 11. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. A lot.''
When Fernando-López, 40, and other neighbors ran out to see what had happened, one man lay bleeding on the sidewalk, another on the patio of the apartment building. A third person lay over the doorway, Fernando-López said.
Beach police spokesman Hernandez said Evers was acquainted with at least some of the victims.
Hernandez said Evers did not have any prior convictions. He said a store owner in the Broward County mall filed a complaint with police after a tiff with Evers.
WIFE'S BIRTHDAY
Friends said it was Fondovila's wife -- identified as Melina Fondovila -- who was being feted Saturday night. Her birthday was Sunday.
They also said the couple had just celebrated their daughter's first birthday on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at miami.com ...
" 'The Partridge Family's Greatest Hits'... 'Donny and Marie Go Hawaiian'... 'Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods: Live!'... 'Debby Boone: The Early Raggae Years'... yep. Justifiable homicide. No doubt about it." :)
Criminy, modern society would make John Wesley Hart a footnote on page 6.
I bet.
The guy should've tried earplugs combined with protective target-shooting earwear. That combo would keep out the noise of any party.
Lets see, it's 4:00 a.m. and this woman is carrying a baby around at a freaking party? Jezzzzzz. Sounds like these are more people that our government is dumping on us by the freighter full.
I can't imaging living in an apartment building, (I call them civilian barracks) teaming with low life that party at 4:00 in the freaking morning.....I just couldn't deal with it.
It would piss me off too. Now, I'am waiting for the race card to be played.
Try sewing a basketball to the back of his pajamas. People sleeping on their side usually snore less loudly or less often.
One night you sleep with the ear muffs, and the night he sleeps with a P.J. basketball ;=)
Well, it happened in Miami Beach, the island of fruits and nuts.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang band
Lesson to be learned: Even if you are a guest, you still need to respect neibours rights to leave undisturbed in peace, period.
Now I'm confused, are we supposed to be outraged about the shooting or the woman who had a baby at a 4:00 AM party? ...And if there was smoking at the party, what was the effect of the second hand smoke on that child? ...Plus the loud music could damage the babies hearing forever...
Help me here, where should I place my outrage, I don't want to give anyone a pass.
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