Florida: 'Loud music' provokes 3 killings

Miami Herald ^ | June 2, 2003

[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.

[LADY J]

"Ten days earlier, Evers received a warning for trespassing at a Coral Springs shopping center, police said. That's when he gave officers his parent's address."

How do you trespass in a shopping center that's open to the public?

[MineralMan]

"Multiculturalism means we must accept blaring music at 4am and people who aren't used to having to get up and go off to work with no sleep"

So, loud music is an excuse for shooting people, especially if they're immigrants? Is that it?

[Trailerpark Badass]

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.

Call 'em tenements, that's what they are. Prolly Section 8 subsidy recipients (the music lovers, that is. Maybe the shooter, also.)

[Provost-Marshal]

If you have to rely on the cops for your protection, you are not a citizen deserving of freedom. As Benjamin Franklin wrote, "He that trades their liberty for a little security, deserves neither liberty nor security." Self-reliance is what made this country great.

[george wythe]

REACHING OUT: Melina Fondovila, the wife of shooting victim Patricio Ernesto Fondovila, is comforted by a Miami Beach police officer after the attack that left three people dead and two wounded

[tob2]

We do not know all the facts of this sad case and I do hope that people who "play it loud" will sit up and take notice. From my own experience, however, people who have to blast music and create intolerable noise pollution DON'T CARE! In my community, this goes on 24/7 and the police DON'T CARE about it nor does the Home Owners Association. Noise pollution is now a part of our society which affects the quality of life and there is no end to the noise pollution. Even with my doors and windows closed, my house shakes, the windows shake, the floor and furniture shakes. I can even tape the racket clearly on my tape recorder, inside my house with the doors and windows closed! Noise pollution is systemic in our society and cannot be escaped. Ear plugs don't help much, neither does sound masking machines. The noisy people everywhere need to tone it down. I don't care what anyone listens to on their radio or TV, but when it deprives me the opportunity to watch my TV or listen to music I want to listen to, it makes me angry. The shooter went too far and should have found another way to deal with the situation.

[Mr. Mojo]

would YOU really bend over backwards to accomodate an intrusion like that?

Of course not. I'd probably call the cops, stick some earplugs in, and wait for the cavalry to arrive. I would NOT confront a bunch of drunk revelers at 4:00 in the morning. ...And I certainly wouldn't shoot 'em.

[MineralMan]

"If you have to rely on the cops for your protection, you are not a citizen deserving of freedom. As Benjamin Franklin wrote, "He that trades their liberty for a little security, deserves neither liberty nor security." Self-reliance is what made this country great"

Well, there might be alternatives to shooting the noisemakers, though, doncha think? In most apartment buildings, there's a master electrical panel, with breakers for each apartment. It's usually accessible. Me? I'd march down there and flip the breaker for the offender's apartment.

But, to each his own, I guess. Although, the price this guy's going to pay for his method of quieting the party will probably a bit high, eh?

[george wythe]

How do you trespass in a shopping center that's open to the public?

IMO, by overstaying your welcome.

You must leave a store after being asked to leave by the store owner, especially you are a belligerent customer.

If you don't leave, then you are trespsssing.

[Joe Hadenuf]

LOL, I noticed they threw that in there as this guy obviously doesn't have a criminal history. He just went sideways at the morons partying at 4:00 a.m., cracked and unloaded. That'll probably be the quietest apartment building in town for a while anyway. Gawd I would hate to live in an apartment.

[savedbygrace]

You probably mean John Wesley Hardin, right?

[Mr. Mojo]

LOL....Yeah right. I sure would like to see you confront a bunch of drunk manaics in the middle of the night. Calling the cops in this instance isn't "relying on them for one's protection." It's just asking them to do their job. The guy wasn't being threatened with physical harm.

[MineralMan]

"Yeah right. I sure would like to see you confront a bunch of drunk manaics in the middle of the night. Calling the cops in this instance isn't "relying on them for one's protection." It's just asking them to do their job. The guy wasn't being threatened with physical harm."

Yeah, but there are folks here who don't see a problem with wasting people for playing loud music. It's amazing.

[oyez]

more to this story we aren't hearing.

Like about 75% of the news we get. The other 25% are given a erronous spin.

[FITZ]

There are better ways ---I know of some people who were out camping and there was a very loud party going on ---not by immigrants either --- so they took firecrackers and started throwing toward the party ----the party members thought they were being shot at and took off and the rangers didn't catch those throwing fire crackers.

Instead of shooting these party goers, it might have been better to go play Metallica or something full blast, maybe American patriotic music ---that would annoy them.

[Mr. Mojo]

Gawd I would hate to live in an apartment.

I know what you mean. ....At this point, I'd have a really difficult time living anywhere where I can't hunt on my property.

[george wythe]

Evers didn't call police to complain about the noise, Hernandez said. A background check showed that police had not been called to the building in the past several years, he said. (AP)

[FITZ]

I didn't say what you accuse me of ---I used the word "accept" didn't I?

[Mr. Mojo]

If killing people for playing loud music was the norm, I'd have been dead long before I reached 18.