MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A 24-year-old West Kendall man has been arrested after an investigation into a shooting on the Don Shula Expressway off Killian Parkway last month that left a 9-year-old girl injured.
Police identified Jessy Anthony Betancourt as the driver who shot into a 2011 gray Chrysler 300 sedan, where the girl was in the passenger seat of her father’s car. The incident happened on Tuesday, Nov. 16 just before 9:15 p.m.
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The Florida Highway Patrol and Miami-Dade Police Department conducted the investigation and said the shooting may have been a road rage incident.
According to FHP Lt. Alex Camacho, the girl’s father told troopers that he was heading south on the Don Shula Expressway when a white Ford Mustang pulled up alongside his car and fired a gun at him, striking the driver’s side door. The Mustang, according to an arrest form, had “5.0″ emblems affixed to its sides.
He then said the person in the Mustang drove around the victim’s vehicle toward the passenger side, and three more shots were fired into the car, striking the girl. FHP said the victim’s father drove directly to West Kendall Baptist Hospital. The girl was then transferred to Kendall Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said both the victim’s and the suspect’s vehicle were traveling on State Road 874, a toll road in Miami-Dade County, where multiple cameras capture photographs of vehicle license plates.
Images and time stamps of the victim’s vehicle and any white Mustang that matched the victim’s statement were obtained via a subpoena and, on Nov. 22, an image of the victim’s vehicle passing through the toll with a time stamp of 8:20 p.m. on Nov. 16 appeared. Ten seconds before the victim’s car, an image of a white Ford Mustang, was captured.
Detectives were able to track the car to a West Kendall address. After a search of the property, the vehicle was found parked behind a wooden fence with a car cover over it, according to an arrest form.
Betancourt was arrested on Friday, Dec. 10 after he surrendered to police and is charged with two counts of attempted first degree murder, shooting a deadly missile from a car and tampering with evidence.