MIAMI – Miami police arrested a man on a bevy of felony charges Friday, including one count of attempted murder, after they said he tried to kill his stepdaughter amid a violent confrontation.
According to police, 64-year-old Luis Damas went to his ex-wife’s apartment, the location of which was redacted from an arrest report, and knocked on her door Wednesday evening.
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The report states that Damas, of northwest Miami-Dade, had been married to the woman for 13 years and the pair separated seven months before the incident.
Police said the woman went outside and told Damas that she had a friend over and would speak with him later.
At around 10 p.m., while walking with her friend in the hallway, she again encountered Damas, police said.
The report states that as the woman’s friend got on an elevator and left, Damas began arguing with the victim, yelling and asking where his stepdaughter was, claiming “that she was the reason they could not be together.”
Police said Damas then pushed the victim into the apartment while asking for his stepdaughter, then pulled out a gun and said he would kill her.
He then went into a bedroom, where his stepdaughter was on a bed; she jumped off and tried hiding under a mattress, police said.
Damas then said “I’m going to kill you” and fired one shot at his stepdaughter, missing, the report states.
According to police, Damas’ ex “began to wrestle” with him and her stepdaughter jumped on him in an attempt to disarm him.
The report states that he began to “bite (his ex-wife) all over her body” and she then “grabbed a wine bottle from the kitchen and began to strike” Damas in an attempt to stop the attack.
Police said his ex “pleaded” with Damas “to please stop and calm down so they can talk.”
Detectives were told Damas “calmed down but kept a hold of (his stepdaughter) by the hair while sitting on the couch, not allowing her to exit” the apartment, authorities said.
The report states Damas put the gun under his thigh and agreed to talk and then later demanded that his ex-wife help him “clean up the scene” in the apartment, making her “sweep and mop the floor and collect all evidence from the scene and place it in a blue garbage bag.”
Police said Damas’ ex walked outside with him to reassure him that she wasn’t calling police; the report states he had threatened to “have them killed by hitmen that he knew” if they did so.
The victims called police the next day and went to Jackson Memorial Hospital to be treated for their injuries, the report states.
Authorities would locate Damas at his home in the 5300 block of Northwest 174th Drive, west of Miami Gardens, and take him into custody Friday.
In addition to one count of attempted murder, Damas faces two counts each of burglary with assault or battery, false imprisonment with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault with a firearm.
He also faces additional counts of attempted evidence tampering and felony battery, bringing his total to nine felonies.
Damas, a Cuban national, was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Monday morning.