New details emerge about suspect accused of shooting Miami-Dade police officer
MIAMI – New details have emerged about Jeremy Willie Horton, the man accused of shooting a Miami-Dade police officer working a Robbery Intervention Detail in Liberty City Monday night.
Horton reportedly came to Florida from Georgia, where according to court records he was facing kidnapping, battery and cruelty to a child.
CBS4's Jim DeFede spoke to Grady Moore, the attorney who represented Horton in the Cobb County case.
Moore said he was a court appointed attorney in the case, which stemmed from an incident that took place in 2019.
During an altercation with his girlfriend, Horton was accused of assaulting the woman and grabbing her child. Horton allegedly started carrying the child away when he then put the child down, which was then the basis for the kidnapping charge.
The cruelty to a child charge stemmed from that same incident, in which prosecutors alleged the child emotional trauma.
Prosecutors decided not to indict on the kidnapping charge and instead bumped up felonies on the other charges.
Because of COVID, the case was delayed almost two years before a formal indictment against Horton took place.
By then, the victim had decided to stop cooperating and the charges were dropped on July 13, 2022.
Horton had no further contact with the woman or her child after his initial arrest.
Horton was not in court when the charges were dropped. So, we don't know when he left Georgia and came to Florida.
He declined to comment about the shooting or what type of person Horton was.
DeFede has sent a request for a statement to the Cobb County district attorney.
He was able to get the prosecutor, Amanda Buxton, on the case on the phone, but she referred all questions to their media relations person.