NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - The families of the two men who were fatally gunned down outside of a banquet hall in Northwest Miami-Dade made a passionate plea for information to help police capture the gunmen who remain at large.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, loved ones urged the public to take a close look at surveillance video of the three gunmen getting out of a Nissan Pathfinder near the El Mula Banquet Hall, just after midnight on Sunday.
“No snitching leads to no conviction,” said Schkena Bruton, Desmond Owen’s aunt. “I know the streets, and the streets say, ‘Snitches get stitches,’ but guess what: if you don’t snitch, there will be no conviction.”
Police said Owen and Clayton Dillard, both 26, were killed. Twenty-one other victims were taken to multiple hospitals across South Florida.
Owen leaves behind two young children.
Police said four gunmen in total unloaded a barrage of bullets into a crowd outside of the banquet hall along Northwest 186th Street.
Investigators said the fourth gunman did not get out of the Pathfinder and fired at the crowd from a different angle.
Among the surviving victims of the mass shooting was 26-year-old De’Dedra Thomas. She was shot in the back three times, and another bullet grazed her leg.
“That’s really wicked, for you to scoop that low like that and shoot up a whole crowd of people that had nothing to do with none of ya’ll got going on. That’s wicked,” she said.
There’s a growing memorial where the shooting occurred.
Melanie Bruton, Owen’s mother, visited it on Thursday.
“No parent should have to bury a child. That’s it. No parent should have to bury a child. It don’t go that way; it don’t work like that,” she said.
The shooters ditched the stolen Pathfinder after the crime. Police later pulled it from a canal in North Miami-Dade.
However, the surveillance video was something the perpetrators could not discard, and the victims’ families are counting on someone to identify the killers.
There is a reward of up to $130,000 for information that leads to an arrest of the killers responsible.
If you have any information on this shooting, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for the reward.
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