MIAMI – Five years have passed, but time has yet to heal their wound.
On Jan. 3, 2020, at around 7:30 p.m., 22-year-old Melissa Gonzalez was driving south on Interstate 95 near the 79th Street exit when she was hit and killed by a stray bullet.
Melanie Machado and her mother Sheilla Nuñez stood with loved ones just across I-95 from where police believe the gunfire came from.
Police believe the gunfire came from a shooting on Northwest 83rd Street.
Detectives believe surveillance video they obtained shows a vehicle with people fleeing the scene, but years later, no one has been brought to justice.
Melissa’s mother feels the highways are unsafe and has been pleading with elected officials to install more cameras on highways to better monitor criminal activity before their tragedy repeats itself.
Melissa’s father, calling in from Cuba, also begged authorities for better control of gun violence.
U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Florida, was unavailable for an interview but sent us this message putting her hope in law enforcement.
“We cannot permit, we cannot allow as a society for things like that to happen and not find justice,” she said. “Now that we have a new sheriff in town, we’re going to find who killed Melissa.”