MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Two men have been arrested after they failed to notify authorities that the shooter of a 16-year-old girl was fleeing the country, police said.
Mario Conley-Hernandez, 22, and Loidel Gomez-Rouco, 20, were arrested Friday by Miami-Dade police as accessories after the fact.
Ana Alvarez-Hernandez was fatally wounded by a stray bullet about 2:45 a.m. Sunday while standing in the parking lot of the 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant on Northwest 57th Avenue.
According to the arrest affidavits, Conley-Hernandez and Gomez-Rouco were among a large group of people gathered outside the restaurant to socialize.
After someone threw a beer bottle in the direction of the men, one of their friends pulled out a rifle and fired into the air. After someone confronted the shooter and slapped him in the face, the shooter opened fire into the crowd.
Alvarez-Hernandez's boyfriend and her friends drove her to Kendall Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Police said Conley-Hernandez and Gomez-Rouco knew the shooter had purchased an airline ticket to leave the country in an effort to avoid arrest.
"There isn't enough probable cause for accessory after the fact," Conley-Hernandez's attorney, Dennis Gonzalez Jr., told Local 10 News. "No overact was committed by my client. We believe he is witness. Being a witness to a crime does not make you a criminal."
Police haven't revealed the shooter's identity, but he remains at large.