MIAMI – An OfferUp meeting in Homestead turned into a shooting that left a 16-year-old boy injured, and four suspects behind bars — including South Dade High School students.
Two users on the online marketplace mobile app made a deal to trade a $500 minibike for a motorized bicycle and $200, and they agreed to meet on Tuesday, according to police.
The buyer and the seller showed up with friends. A witness, who was driving the seller to the meeting, said a shooter who was with the buyer wounded a teenage boy in her car.
“The kid is still actually in the hospital still fighting for his life,“ the witness said in court on Thursday.
Jackson South Medical Center staff reported the shooter wounded the teenage boy twice on the right leg and once in the abdomen, according to the police report. Detectives identified the shooter as 18-year-old Jairo Bonilla.
They escorted Bonilla in handcuffs on Thursday afternoon after they had already arrested the OfferUp buyer, Tulio Gonzalez, and his two other accomplices, Jairo Garcia, and Aureliano Gomez.
According to police, Gonzalez, 16, alleged the $500 minibike belonged to him, but it was stolen, and after he found it for sale on OfferUp, he decided to ask his friends for “backup” to recover it.
Detectives believe Gomez, 19, used a Nissan to block the meeting point’s exit, as Garcia, 17; Gonzalez; and Bonilla approached the car, and one used his elbow to shatter a window.
Gomez, who has a criminal record, was facing seven new charges. County inmate records show corrections held him without bond on a charge of attempted felony murder.
“I am going to hold you with no bond which is a crime punishable by life in prison if you are found guilty,” Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer told Gomez in court on Thursday.
Records show a judge set his bond at $22,500 for the other six charges of attempted armed robbery, four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, and attempted tampering with physical evidence.
Court records show Gomez also had a warrant case while out on felony bond for fleeing and eluding police. Prosecutors had filed the pending Miami-Dade case on May 30, 2023.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge William Altfield was set to preside over both of Gomez’s cases.
Juvenile records aren’t public, so it was unclear on Thursday what charges Gonzalez and Garcia faced for their alleged role in the shooting.
The teenager who was wounded remained in an induced coma at Jackson South Medical Center, his condition was stable, and doctors expected him to survive, according to police. While in court, on Thursday, his mother said he still had to undergo several surgeries.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.