Man Killed, Brother Injured in North Miami Beach Shooting
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NORTH MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) - A man was killed and his brother injured after several people fired guns into a North Miami Beach home Tuesday night.
North Miami Beach Police Major Kathy Katerman told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that the two victims were not the intended targets and says police are trying to determine if the shooting was tied to any other shootings in North Miami-Dade in the past two weeks and if this latest incident was gang-related.
"We believe that the two shooting victims were not the intended targets which makes this a very sad case," said Katerman. She said detectives believe someone else inside the home was the intended target.
She said, "They came home at the wrong time."
She said weapons were found inside the home and said police had been to the home before on calls but did not elaborate.
Katerman also said detectives "worked tirelessly through the night" and said a new team of detectives was being brought in.
"Gun violence is off the charts in Miami-Dade," said Katerman. "We need to get youngsters away from this violence. It seems life means so little."
The victims' loved ones are distraught.
"No parent should have to go through something like this. I never thought, I always see this stuff on the news but I never thought that it would be happening to me," said the boys' mother Esmae Dugue. "Now I have to bury my son."
Christopher Jonathas, 25, and his half brother 29-year old Wilson Boue were playing video games at a relative's home at 14th Avenue and NE 175th Street when gunfire erupted through a window around 7:15 p.m. Jonathas had gone to the home to pick up Boue for a job interview on Wednesday.
"They were playing video games in the bedroom and someone got out of the car, went to the window and shot the silhouette in the house. They saw image in the house and shot through the windows," said Boue's father.
Jonathas, who had moved to Pembroke Pines to live with his dad because he didn't think the neighborhood was safe, was killed in the gunfire. He recently graduated from college with a degree in business administration and wanted to go to graduate school.
"Chris had a bright future ahead of him and he didn't deserve this. There's nothing that Chris wouldn't do for anyone," said Dugue.
"I'm going to miss him. He was my baby," said Wilbert Jonathas.
"This was a senseless death. He had nothing to do with whatever they thought it was. Like why," said Jonathas' aunt Donna Newbold. "It just hurts. You take an innocent life away from a family, that hurts. For no reason, no reason at all. There was no need to kill him. There was no need to go in there and shoot up. You don't know who was there, he was just visiting, he don't even live there, he was just playing video games, like are you serious."
Boue, who was shot in the hand, was taken to Aventura Hospital. He had recently moved back to South Florida from Gainesville where he trained for his EMT certification to become a firefighter.
Police say they are looking for two to three people who were involved in the shooting.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS. There's a reward of up to $3,000.