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.

[Joe Hadenuf]

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!

And I always pictured Virgina as the quite country....LOL....

[Cate]

Lets see, it is a common sense case. At 4 am MOST people in this country are asleep. At 4 am babies being woken up should be just hungry and need their diapers changed. At 4 am babies should not be woken up by a party in the house. At 4 am, the police should be cruising by a QUIET apartment building making sure no one is prowling around. At 4 am, a man should not be running around the neighborhood with a loaded gun confronting people. I work night shifts for my job and the fact is, at night, I am quiet when I am home. Every single neighbor around me is asleep and I respect that. During the day, earplugs work fine to filter out the lawnmowers, kids in pools, etc. If the simple common sense rules in life are followed, stupid incidents like this don't happen.

[MineralMan]

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

I accused you of nothing. I asked you a question. Nobody's saying that you must accept loud music at 4 a.m.. I'm saying, however, that shooting people is not an acceptable response. There are alternative responses that don't involve killing people, I'd think. Perhaps you can think of a couple.

[george wythe]

There are better ways

You've got good suggestions.

MineralMan proposed switching off the electricity for the noisy apartment at the breaker panel.

[Buzzcook]

"It would piss me off too. Now, I'am waiting for the race card to be played."

Looks like it already has been

[FITZ]

The electricity one is even better.

[eBelasco]

The shooter's other option was the free-market one. He could just move somewhere quieter. If you don't like second-hand smoke, stay out of bars. Don't get the government to legislate against smoking. Same with noise "pollution."

[dljordan]

I don't think he means it's ok to shoot people.

[Travis McGee]

Nice to see that Miami is still Miami. Almost like the "cocaine cowboys" days.

[FITZ]

I did ----throw firecrackers their way, or drown out their music with even louder music ----but your idea of the electricity is good too. I've listened to very loud Mexican music playing all night and ---luckily it's not as annoying and if it's only sometimes, I can deal with it ----but playing loud music and depriving people of sleep is a well known torture tactic known to make people snap---wasn't it what was done on Noriega in Panama to get him out of his mansion?

[MineralMan]

"MineralMan proposed switching off the electricity for the noisy apartment at the breaker panel.
"

There are tons of ways to inconvenience loud party holders. Household ammonia, squirted under the door of the apartment from a squeeze bottle works pretty well. That's pretty much guaranteed to empty the place. Turning off the electricity, though, really, really works well. I did that one time in a motel where a loud party was in the room next to mine and the motel manager wouldn't answer the phone. I walked out and around the back of the motel until I found the breaker panel. The room numbers were clearly marked on each breaker. So I just switched that one off. Since the manager of the motel wasn't answering the phone, the room stayed quiet for the rest of the night.

A firearm is probably a poor way to stop a party, I'd think, especially if the partiers have their own firearms in the house, as everyone here seems to recommend.

Bad news all around.

[vrwc1]

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.

So being "self-reliant" and murdering three people is preferable to calling the cops to get your neighbors to turn down the music? I'm glad I'm not your neighbor!

[Travis McGee]

Having lived in both, I would prefer to live in a trailer in the boondocks over an apartment in the city ANY day.

[Joe Hadenuf]

LOL....Yeah right. I sure would like to see you confront a bunch of drunk manaics in the middle of the night.

A likely scenario

I can imagine what happened facing a bunch of low life drunks at 4:00 a.m. and telling them to turn down the noise. Bet the rent, they obviously didn't like this guy telling them what to do.

This guy probably couldn't stand the drunks and noise anymore, stuck his piece in his pocket and went down there and told them to shut the hell up, some of the drunks thought they would show him what's up and probably threatened to kick his ass or moved towards him in a threatening manner, at which point the disturbed neighbor dropped the drunks.

[Joe Hadenuf]

That's what happens in apartments full of low life. No one ever calls the cops until there are dead bodies laying all over the place.

[wardaddy]

The scariest thing in Miami when I was there (aside from Liberty City at night) was the rash of home invasions by off duty cops.

I remember one where they stormed in and taped a shotgun to the neck of a 3 year old girl to force Dad to hand over "everything" and raped Mom while they were at it.....around Cocoplum down Old Cutler road. All were Miami city cops.

[vrwc1]

I know who you were talking about. Those were two different thoughts in my post, that's why they were two different paragraphs. There is no argument that the neighbors were being disrespectful, I just don't see how that gives you the license to condemn them all as "low-lifes" and "skanks". Have you never done anything disrespectful in your life?

[coloradan]

By city ordinance, music should not be audible within 100 feet of a residence after 11 p.m., police said.

So, it's ok if the music is audible beyond 100 ft, so long as it isn't audible within 100 feet?

[MineralMan]

"This guy probably couldn't stand the drunks and noise anymore, stuck his piece in his pocket and went down there and told them to shut the hell up, some of the drunks thought they would show him what's up and probably threatened to kick his ass or moved towards him in a threatening manner, at which point the disturbed neighbor dropped the drunks."

If he took his gun to the party, then he's gonna get a first-degree murder charge out of this. Pretty high price to pay for being ticked at a loud party. Given the rhetoric from some here, it seems like many might say that they have the right to party as loud as they want, whenever they want. If others don't like it, they should move out. That's the libertarian point of view, I'd guess. So, here, this guy comes up, armed, and tells these people to shut up their party. They object to his position on the subject, so he blows a few of 'em away. He took the weapon with him, so he must have figured he might use it. First Degree Murder.

I wonder if the death penalty advocates here would advocate the death penalty for this "poor" tenant? Somehow, I doubt it.

[Travis McGee]

Oh yes I remember that era well. The 'roid boys', the steroid taking rageaholic "Miami River Cops."

All we need in this story is a Mac-10 for it to be complete.

And maybe some bbloody Santeria offerings nailed to someone's door.