Family Pleads For Help After Man Shot In His Car
MIAMI (CBS4)- A South Florida family is pleading for the community's help after their loved one was found shot inside a car in Miami and later died.
Police said 36-year-old Antwain Watson was not robbed and the gunman who fired multiple bullets may have fled on foot.
His mother Betty Watson said she was shocked by her son's death.
"I just couldn't believe it, I mean you know, there's always one child that you always worry about and you know you're always looking for something to happen, but when you do you're never ready for that kind of thing to happen."
Watson was shot and killed just before 2 a.m. Wednesday while he was sleeping in his car in front of a home at 222 NW 59th Street. His loved ones said he was visiting a friend near that location, as he often did. He was transported by Miami Fire Rescue to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Trauma Unit where he died shortly after arriving.
With friends and family members standing around in a news conference at Miami Police headquarters, Betty Watson said she can't understand why anyone would want to kill him.
"As my son, I didn't think anybody felt bad enough about him to kill him in this manner," said his mother.
"He was my first son, he was my oldest son and he just loved us a lot and he always called me," she said. "He was the one person that called me every day to say hello Mom. How are you doing?"
Homicide detectives are stumped because Watson was not robbed. Records show that he did have some run-ins with the law but police are not sure why he was shot.
"It looks like there was no motivation," Det. Frankie Sanchez of Miami Police said. "The victim was basically living his life doing what he normally does when an armed person came up and shot him."
"In a lot of situations you could imagine why a person gets shot," said Sanchez. "In this case there is none. So the family needs to know why this happened and we need to take a dangerous person off the street. We need the community to help themselves."
Watson's mother said, "Anybody who brutally killed him like that has no conscience, and if he has no conscience then he's already killed before or he will kill again and we just want to get him odd the street," she said. "You know, it could be your son or your daughter next time or he could turn on you as a parent so we're just asking anybody that knows anything to please let us hear something from you."
"The streets are hell," said Watson. "It's hell and people do get killed every day and I understand that. But they have to remember, you know, just like my son they could get killed. They have to think about calling in, no matter how scared they might be."
Police said they do have surveillance video from the area but it does not show any thing, CBS4's Peter D'Oench reported.
D'Oench also spoke with the friend who Watson was visiting. While that friend did not want to give his name, he told D'Oench that Watson was a regular visitor and had gone to sleep before in one of the cars outside his home.
He told D'Oench that he heard as many as 14 shots being fired at the white Ford Crown Victoria that Watson was sleeping in.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Miami Police Homicide Unit at (305) 603-6350 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 (TIPS).
