MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A mother has been arrested after allegedly playing a role in a supermarket shooting that left her two daughters injured.
A woman arrived at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center on Tuesday afternoon with two girls who were bleeding. She told Miami-Dade police officers they had been the victims of a shooting.
The injuries were not life threatening and both girls are expected to be fine, but they will be separated from their mother after she was arrested for acting as a getaway driver following a theft at a supermarket.
At first, the woman told officers the shooting was in Brownsville, police said. But after investigators didn’t find shell casings, the woman said the shooting was in Hialeah.
Hialeah detectives said a security guard wounded the girls in the parking lot of Rey Chavez Supermarket at 780 W. 17 St. Witnesses told officers the security guard fired at the car of a man who had allegedly stolen from the supermarket. The girls were inside the getaway car, which police said was being driven by their mother.
“Sadly, we are once again investigating a shooting that has left two innocent children wounded,” MDPD Director Alfredo Ramirez III wrote on Twitter. “This is unacceptable, we need the tips to come in so we can arrest those responsible and get the gun(s) used off our streets.”
At the hospital, Miami-Dade officers blocked access to the woman’s car with crime scene tape outside of the trauma center’s entrance. Ramirez later wrote on Twitter that the Hialeah Police Department was leading the investigation.
Investigators said they were questioning the security guard. There has been no update on charges the mother is facing, and police would not say if the man who allegedly stole items from the supermarket was in custody.
GUN VIOLENCE IN MIAMI-DADE
Ramirez’s reaction on Twitter comes as Miami-Dade detectives search for the killer who shot 7-year-old Alana Washington in the head on Saturday. She died at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Monday.
Alana was a second-grade student at KIPP Sunrise Academy, a charter school in Miami-Dade. A school employee said she loved Math.
The fatal shooting at Northwest 51st Street and Northwest 29th Avenue also left 2-year-old Alto Jacobs III, a man and a woman injured.
Meanwhile, detectives in Miami Gardens are investigating the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Lynell Humphery, Jr., who was killed Monday in the Bunche Park neighborhood.
Ramirez is asking anyone with information about the shootings to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477. There is a $20,000 reward for information leading to Alana’s murder and up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in Humphery’s murder.