MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - A police chase ended with the capture of a man accused of shooting his mother-in-law. He was caught only 24 hours after the crime, the same day as another deadly case, as the latest in a string of domestic violence incidents across Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
“What’s going on? There are so many of them,” one witness could be heard saying over cellphone video.
Police say 49-year-old Bilal Ismail shot his mother-in-law in her Miami Gardens home on Northwest 44th Avenue and 203rd Terrace on Monday. The victim, who is in her sixties, is now recovering in a hospital.
Surveillance video from a nearby gas station captured Ismail driving a silver Toyota RAV4 and entering the plaza as police tailgated him.
Investigators with the Miami Gardens Police Department were able to identify Ismail within hours, then recognized him during a traffic stop Tuesday morning near the location of the initial shooting.
Neighbors told 7News off camera Ismail and the victim’s daughter had been separated for months.
Ismail has been in trouble with the law before. In 2016, he was arrested for selling synthetic marijuana.
Police finally put a stop to his run from the law by landing him in a Miami-Dade jail cell.
Another family, however, would not see their loved one recover. Nor will they see the person responsible face justice for his actions.
Before 32-year-old Indiana del Socorro Guzman Mendoza’s life was taken at the hands of her former partner, 61-year-old Reynaldo Sandoval, she posted a video on her Facebook account warning loved ones that if anything happens to her, Sandoval is to blame.
“I brought her here alive, and tragically, I have to send her back to my mother dead,” her sister, Maria Guzman Mendoza, said in Spanish.
She said Sandoval showed up to her sister’s job at Del Toro Insurance, located at 42 Northwest 27th Avenue, and opened fire, fatally striking her. Before he could potentially face justice for his actions, he turned the gun on himself.
“Whatever happens to me, he is responsible. There is a report made by local police here in the US,” said Indiana del Socorro Guzman Mendoza in Spanish in a video posted on Facebook.
Indiana’s family said the two were married for three years and together for nine. However, Sandoval became violent.
Officers even arrested the 61-year-old this year for stalking and violating a domestic violence injunction. Guzman witnessed it only a few months ago.
“I lived in that house for four months, and I know what my sister went through,” Maria said. “I’m the only one who can speak about it because now that bastard killed himself and took her with him.”
If you, or someone you know is in an abusive home, help is available at the Florida Domestic Violence Crisis Hotline 1-800-500-1119. You can also contact Women in Distress at 954-761-1133 for help or to donate to their cause on their website.
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