He was a former Marine, but his military training couldn’t save him. As Patrick Fraser tell us in tonight’s Out for Justice, it’s been six years since Yosbel Millares was brutally murdered, but City of Miami detectives have some promising leads and are hoping for a break in the case.
WSVN — Yosbel Millares survived four years as a Marine serving his country. He couldn’t survive a cowardly gunman in Miami.
Miami Police Detective Rick Martinez: “Yosbel gave the money up. Why would you kill him?”
When Yosbel left the service he returned to Miami and become the manager of a Metro PCS store.
Magnolia Millares: “Yosbel was my best friend. He never got into trouble; he was just kind, a good, good guy.”
Two days before the shooting, Yosbel and his fiancée met with a doctor and got some great news.
Claudia Velazquez: “She told us that we were having a son. He threw his hands up in the air, he puts his hands on his head, he was ecstatic. I’ve never seen him that happy.”
Yosbel and Claudia would be parents, and then on October 28, 2007, Yosbel walked out of the Metro PCS store with the day’s receipts.
Detective Rick Martinez: “When these guys come to hold him up, as I understand it from the witnesses, he does not put up a resistance. He pretty much throws the money bag at the foot of one of the robbers, and for some reason they still shoot him anyways.”
The gunman shot him twice, killing him.
Rick Martinez: “He died in the arms of one of his close friends.”
Claudia Velazquez: “I heard this scream that I had never heard in my life, and it was his mom screaming, and that’s when I knew that it wasn’t good.”
The witnesses described the two crooks as black males wearing ski masks. They grabbed the bag of money and took off. Did they just happen to show up as Yosbel was walking out with the money? Detective Martinez says no; this was an inside job.
Detective Rick Martinez: “This was very well planned, to a tee. It does seem like it was someone that worked there who may have purposely, or maybe inadvertently, I don’t know, provided information to the people that committed this robbery/homicide.”
This surveillance camera shows the bad guys driving away, but the store camera that would have shown the murderers was strangely turned off that day.
Detective Rick Martinez: “They have everything monitored but that one camera that does not capture the homicide. What a coincidence that it’s not working.”
Someone made it possible for the gunman to shoot a hardworking man.
Magnolia Millares: “My family was never the same, never been the same. It was just destroyed.”
Little Yosbel is now five. He never knew his father and is still too young to understand he never will.
Claudia Velazquez: “My son the other day asked me, ‘Can we go to the burial site where my dad is? I want to see him.’ I had to explain to a 5-year-old how he’s not going to be able to see him.”
Hopefully Detective Martinez might be able to at least let him know who killed his father. Hopefully it will be soon. Hopefully someone watching knows who the killers are. Knows who told them exactly when Yosbel would be leaving the store. Hopefully someone will make a call to Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers (305-471-TIPS).
And if you have lost a loved one and want to remind people you are still out for justice, give us a call. With this Out for Justice, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
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