MIAMI (WSVN) - Devastated loved ones are reeling days after, police said, a prominent community activist and restaurant owner was fatally gunned down in front of his business in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.
Surveillance video captured the moments after Dwight Wells came under fire along the 5000 block of Northwest 17th Avenue, just before 9:20 p.m. on Friday.
According to City of Miami Police, a masked man approached Wells during a game of dominoes and opened fire, striking the 40-year-old multiple times before he fled on foot.
The security footage shows people running for cover in the wake of the gunfire and Wells collapsing.
“I looked up and I just seen smoke in my face,” said Wells’ girlfriend Lulu, who was next to him when the shooting happened. “Basically his target was Streamer.”
Streamer was Wells’ nickname. Lulu believes this wasn’t a random shooting but doesn’t understand the reason behind it.
“He didn’t deserve it, we all know that,” she said. “He was a good person.”
Paramedics transported Wells to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Friday night’s killing left a community in mourning and triggered a search for the gunman responsible.
On Sunday, his mother, Mary Brown, spoke with 7News outside of her son’s restaurant.
“I was so proud of him. He was a son that a mother needed,” she said.
Brown said Wells may be gone, but his legacy is vast.
“The kindness he shared — to the elderly people, to the little children, to the adults, to the adolescents, the way he fed the homeless. My son was a God child,” she said.
Family members said business owner was just one of his contributions to a community for which he cared deeply.
“He really helped a lot of kids, changed their lives as far as, you know, turning their lives around in the community,” said Wells’ sister, Tina Lafrance. “He was a community activist; he was all about bikes up and guns down.”
Wells was widely known for leading “Bikes up, Guns Down,” a community initiative that, family members said, was aimed at helping young people pedal toward peace in an effort to end gun violence.
“We started up with the kids on their bikes, you know, doing tricks, and I’d seen that bikes was always a part of our culture,” Wells told 7News in a 2017 interview. “Keeping the guns out of their hands was our main objective, and that’s what we’re all about.”
7News captured moments when Wells was seen comforting families who had lost loved ones to gun violence over the years.
“It’s blood being shed on this land!” he said during a community gathering.
Brown pointed out the irony of the cause to which, she said, her son dedicated his life was the same one that ended it.
“They used what he believed in against him,” she said, “But it’s well, it’s all right. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
Brown believes the best way to honor his memory is for someone to continue his work.
“We just takin’ it one day at a time, we’re changing lives one day at a time,” said Wells.
Now, community members and local students are visiting a growing memorial outside of his restaurant to pay their respects.
“I wanted to educated them [students] on his legacy. He was trying to make a great impact for the community to put down senseless gun violence ,” said Director of Masterminds Academy Kierstan Sapp.
A balloon release will be held outside of Wells’ restaurant Monday night.
No arrests have been made in this case.
Wells’ family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with expenses. If you would like to make a donation, click here.
If you have any information on this shooting 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 reward of up to $5,000.
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