MIAMI SPRINGS, Fla. – A man who is accused of shooting a 25-year-old aspiring architect from Argentina who had just moved to South Beach appeared in Miami-Dade County court on Friday.
Officer Ernesto Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Miami Beach Police Department, identified the man arrested on Thursday in Miami Springs as Ranier Figueroa, 21, of Hialeah.
Officers arrested Figueroa at the Extended Stay America Suites, at 101 Fairway Dr., where another armed robbery suspect died in a police-involved shooting on Monday after shooting a detective.
The detective, who was shot in the head, was Miami-Dade Detective Cesar “Echy” Echaverry, who died on Wednesday at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was 29.
The Miami-Dade Police Department honored him with a procession on Friday in Allapattah and a dignified motorcade escort to a funeral home.
Meanwhile, Figueroa was accused of walking up to two victims at about 4:35 a.m., on July 21, in front of an apartment building, near the intersection of Michigan Court and Eighth Street.
Figueroa asked them for money and after a victim handed him $1, he then pulled out a gun to rob them, police said. Figueroa shot one of the victims in the torso, ran away, and fled in a black car, police said.
Miami Beach detectives reviewed hours of surveillance video from that morning in South Beach and were able to associate the car’s Florida tag with their suspect.
The victim’s father said his son had just moved a few months before from Argentina to South Beach and he was in a coma at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center at first. The victim remained hospitalized on Friday and was in stable condition.
Figueroa, who has a criminal record, is facing charges of attempted murder and two counts of armed robbery. He is being held without bond.
Watch the 4:30 p.m. report
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