MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – A 17-year-old Miami Gardens teen now faces adult charges in the shooting death of his romantic rival, according to police.
The shooting happened just after noon on May 24 at a home in the 2800 block of Northwest 184th Street.
Recommended Videos
At the center of the apparent love triangle was a teenager aged 17 or 18 at the time of the shooting, according to the arrest report. A witness said she was dating Damareah Dewon Sanders and the victim, William Lee Alexander III, 18, at the same time.
She described Sanders as her “ex-boyfriend” to police.
Police said Sanders and another person first went into her house and began beating Alexander, who had stayed over the night before, with a broomstick. Sanders then left, but would eventually come back, the warrant states.
The girlfriend was at school at the time and was urged by her sister to come home after the beating, according to police.
After the girlfriend got back home, a witness told police that he heard Sanders tell the girlfriend over the phone: “Why didn’t you tell me he was there?”
The witness told police that he then heard the girlfriend arguing with Alexander in the bedroom.
The girlfriend told police that after the two had returned to the bedroom, they heard Sanders, along with Carlton Rondell Harris, also 17, trying to force their way in, the warrant states. They said the two had gotten into the house through the window of another bedroom.
She told police she heard Harris, who was armed, ask Sanders “that’s him?” as they broke in the room, the warrant states.
According to police, Harris fired a single shot at Alexander, who was later rushed to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital and pronounced dead. The two then ran away.
The witness told police that Harris, whom he knew, wasn’t the person who accompanied Sanders during the broomstick beating.
Court records show Sanders’ case was moved to adult court on Thursday. He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Friday on a second-degree murder charge and was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
It wasn’t clear if Harris had been arrested or charged in connection to the killing.