SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A grieving mother and fiancée are speaking out days after, police said, a dispute over a parking space in Southwest Miami-Dade’s Naranja neighborhood led to the death of a loving son and father.
Speaking with 7News on Thursday, Shereka Butts said she came down from Central Florida to bury her first born, 27-year-old Demetrius Harris.
She said she’s struggling to come to terms with the reason behind Sunday evening’s fatal shooting in front of her son’s apartment building.
“I come and deal with my son in the morgue over a parking space?” she said.
Now there’s a world of pain for the surviving family. Butts said her son leaves behind two small daughters.
“He wanted to be there with his kids. The last thing that me and him did on Sunday was we played makeup through FaceTime with his daughter,” she said.
Friday afternoon, 7News cameras captured Harris’ fiancée, the mother of his daughters, as she filled a U-Haul truck outside of the complex.
“It wasn’t his time. He’s not in a better place,” said Butts.
Grief-stricken family members said they are facing eviction because of the shooting.
“We had our whole lives ahead of us. He had his whole life ahead of him,” said Harris’ fiancée. “He had kids to raise that he left behind.”
Harris’ fiancée, who was not identified, said they were walking from their front door to their car, along the 13000 block of Southwest 270th Street, when the gunman opened fire from a nearby balcony, killing Harris.
“I locked eyes on the gun,” she said, “but I just turned around, and I just ran, and I didn’t look back.”
“When his kids come outside to play, their father lay there dead,” said Butts.
The bullets also hit a parked car that belongs to another neighbor.
Cameras captured an apartment building at the complex sprayed with bullets. Three bullet holes shattered a unit’s sliding door.
Police said Harris was the only one hit. The shooter got away and remains at large.
“I want to know why I have to feel this, why my grandkids have to feel this,” said Butts.
Harris’ fiancée believes it was a neighbor who shot the father of her children.
Relatives said the men had argued over that spot before. How the dispute was settled, they said, took his life and has forever changed theirs.
“This is a domino effect. Nobody wins from this,” said Butts.
Harris’ family said they have not seen the neighbor they believe to be the shooter since Sunday.
Butts had a message for the gunman.
“You didn’t think how it would feel. How do you think your child or your children would feel, because you have messed up, son,” she said.
If you have any information on this crime, call Miami-Dade Police or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.
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