MIAMI (WSVN) - Police are seeking the public’s help in locating the person behind a brutal abduction, sexual battery and shooting in Northwest Miami-Dade that sent a 12-year-old boy to the hospital.
According to Miami-Dade Police, the victim sneaked out of his house early Saturday morning.
“He even put pillows on top of the bed and covered it with a sheet,” said MDPD detective Alvaro Zabaleta. “It shows there’s a body that was sleeping, in the event that the parents, when they check into the room, they wouldn’t know he was gone.”
The boy told police he walked two and a half miles to a friend’s house and was on his way back home when a man forced him into a dark four-door sedan in the area of Northwest 30th Avenue and 43rd Terrace , between 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.
Investigators said the boy was driven to the area of Northwest 45th Street and 31st Avenue, where he was sexually assaulted and shot.
“He was fighting, trying to fight the subject off, and during the struggle, the victim states he heard a pop, a loud pop,” said Zabaleta. “He didn’t know what was going on, but next thing he knows is that he’s being pushed out of the car.”
A man in a bicycle, who identified himself as Johnny, said he was near the spot where the child was dumped.
“He was just screaming, ‘Help! Somebody help me, please!’ He was calling at everybody,” he said.
The boy told detectives he could not see and was groping in the dark in order to find help. Area residents said they had two cars parked in the street covered in blood as the child tried to get inside.
Surveillance video captured the victim sometime later, his face bloodied, as he walked with Johnny and approached a Foodland Market along Northwest 32nd Avenue.
Moments after he stopped near the entrance of the market, the boy fell to the ground.
“He was conscious. He fell on the sidewalk, and he said he had been shot. That was all I know,” said Johnny.
People nearby quickly rushed to the boy’s rescue, as Johnny called 911.
First responders arrived shortly after and took the victim to the emergency room at Ryder Trauma Center in critical condition.
Monday night, he was listed in stable condition. Police said he was well enough to speak with investigators.
Hours earlier, 7News cameras captured blood left behind on a fence in the area where the boy was found.
Johnny said he’s thankful he was in the right place at the right time.
“I feel very good. I couldn’t sleep at all that night, you know?” he said.
The victim is said to be a Miami-Dade County Public School student.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho wrote on Twitter, “Sickened to my core after learning about this savage attack. I pray for this young boy’s physical and emotional recovery, and implore that anyone with information on the despicable coward behind this heinous crime please come forward.”
Police described the subject as a Hispanic man with long curly hair.
Investigators are hoping area residents with surveillance cameras are able to give them information that could help them track down the boy’s attacker.
If you have any information on this incident or the subject’s whereabouts, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a $1,000 reward.
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