Five people have been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting that happened outside a Kendall hookah bar during a graduation party two years ago, Miami-Dade police said Friday.
Police say that Jeremy Devine, who is 22 and from Homestead, Willie Lee Thomas III, who is 21 and from Atlanta, and Melchelzadek Jacory Matthews, who is 21 and from Naples, are all charged with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting in June 2021.
Police said that Thomas was caught in Atlanta and Matthews was caught in Fort Myers. Officials said that as of Friday morning, they both had to wait to be sent back to Miami.
A police statement said that James A. Johnson III, who is 20 and from Florida City, is facing a drug charge and that Aaron J. Clermont, who is 21 and from Homestead, is facing drug and gun charges.
Officials from law enforcement said that the arrests were a big step forward in the case.
Alfredo Ramirez III, the head of the Miami-Dade Police Department, said in a statement, “I am so proud of my detectives for their hard work and dedication in finding the people who were responsible for the senseless shooting at the Hookah Lounge during a graduation party.” “I know how important it is for families whose loved ones have been hurt to get closure and justice.”
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in the statement, “After almost two years of hard work by my team of Assistant State Attorneys and the Miami-Dade Police Department Homicide Detectives, those responsible for the tragic deaths on what was supposed to be a night of celebration are finally being brought to justice.”
“The over a dozen warrants that my prosecutors made and filed helped our law enforcement partners do the hard work of gathering the information and leads that led to these arrests and criminal charges.”
On June 6, 2021, around 2:30 a.m., there was a shooting that killed three people and hurt at least five others.
At the time, police said that a group of people who had been at a party at the place were standing outside when shots were fired, killing a Florida Department of Corrections officer named Tyleisha Taylor.
Police said that they found the bodies of two men who had run away in a car that had crashed into a wall on the Miami-Dade College grounds.
