HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Two teenagers have been charged as adults in connection with the shooting and attempted robbery of a victim in Homestead that police said occurred during an OfferUp meet up.
Tulio Gonzalez, 16, and Jairo Garcia, 17, who are both South Dade High School students, were booked into the Metro West Detention Center on Wednesday.
Recommended Videos
They both face charges of attempted murder and attempted robbery with a weapon.
Two other people, Jairo Bonilla, 18, and Aureliano Gomez, 19, have also been arrested in the case. Police identified Bonilla as the gunman.
According to a police report, two users on the online marketplace mobile app made a deal to trade a minibike for a motorized bicycle and $200, and they agreed to meet on Tuesday, May 7.
Police said they met up in a parking lot at Northwest First Avenue and Ninth Street, where a 16-year-old boy was shot.
According to police, during the investigation into the shooting, both the OfferUp seller and the buyer claimed they were crime victims.
Detectives used OfferUp and Facebook data to identify the buyer as Gonzalez.
According to police, Gonzalez alleged the minibike belonged to him, but was stolen, and after he found it for sale on OfferUp, he decided to ask his friends for “backup” to recover it.
The OfferUp seller reported the meeting was an attempted robbery in which a Nissan blocked the parking lot’s exit, four people approached the car, and one used his elbow to shatter a car window before the shooting.
The OfferUp seller struck the Nissan, got away, and drove the wounded 16-year-old boy to Homestead Hospital where he was airlifted to Jackson South Medical Center, according to police.
Jackson South Medical Center staff reported the victim was shot twice on the right leg and once in the abdomen, according to the police report.
Detectives later identified Garcia as Gonzalez’s accomplice and Gomez as the driver of the Nissan. Police officers said they arrested Gomez while he attempted to fix the car’s damage.