MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Crystal Foster has had enough. The fearless Miami-Dade County resident used Facebook Live to vent about a recent Lincoln Fields shooting that killed a mother who was wounded while she was holding her baby girl.
Foster knows what it’s like to grieve after a shooting. Her brother died in a 2015 police-involved shooting in Homestead. She has been outspoken about gun violence since.
“There’s so many bullet holes in Lincoln Fields in windows,” Foster said. “I mean, is that normal? Is that a normal life for our children?”
During a news conference about the community shootings, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava had questions too: “Where do these guns come from? Why do people have these guns? Why do they feel free to use these guns?”
The 20-year-old mother, Zariyah Marshall, was not the only victim of the Feb. 5 shooting in the area of the Lincoln Fields Apartments, a community that has a project-based Section 8 contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dawann Graham, 20, also died.
Their families recently begged witnesses for help. Graham’s grandmother Carolyn Adderly was angry and Marshall’s sister Tunisia Marshall was in tears. Adderly said there are people in the community who know who the shooter was, but they are too afraid to report them.
“It’s always the same people, but different families when it comes to these shootings,” Foster said.
Faith Brown, a Lincoln Fields Apartments resident, also decided to speak up in outrage. She lost her brother to another shooting a few years ago in the Lincoln Fields Apartments area.
“They don’t care about the kids, [there are] little kids out here and they come by shooting — bystanders being hit,” Brown said.
The Lincoln Fields Apartments’ property manager declined to talk about the shootings. A Miami-Dade Police Department poster offering a $10,000 reward for information into the murders was on display inside the office.
Detectives and the victims’ families are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
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Foster on social media
Facebook Live on Feb. 17