Miami-Dade police announce arrests in 2021 mass shooting outside Kendall hookah lounge
MIAMI -- Police said Friday that five people are are now in custody in connection with a deadly shooting two years ago when gunfire erupted outside a graduation party at a hookah lounge in Kendall.
Jeremy Devine, 22, of Homestead, Willie Lee Thomas III, 21, of Atlanta, and Melchelzadek Jacory Matthews , 21, of Naples, have all been charged with second-degree murder in the June 2021 shooting, according to a written statement by police.
Thomas was arrested in Atlanta while Matthews was arrested in Fort Myers, police said. They were both awaiting extradition back to Miami as of Friday morning, officials said.
Police said James A. Johnson III, 20, of Florida City, is facing a drug charge and Aaron J. Clermont, 20, of Homestead, is facing gun possession and drug charges, according to the police statement.
Law enforcement officials said the arrests were significant developments in the case.
"I am incredibly proud of my detectives for their hard work and dedication in capturing the individuals responsible for the senseless shooting at the Hookah Lounge during a graduation party," Miami-Dade Police Department Director Alfredo Ramirez III said in a written statement. "I understand how important it is for families to receive closure and justice when their loved ones have been victimized."
"After almost two years of dedicated collaboration between my team of Assistant State Attorneys and the Miami-Dade Police Department Homicide Detectives, those responsible for the tragic deaths during what was supposed to be a night of celebration, are finally being brought to justice," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in the statement. "The over a dozen warrants that my prosecutors generated and filed assisted the difficult work of our law enforcement partners gathering the necessary information and leads that have resulted in these arrests and the filing of criminal charges."
The shooting on June 6, 2021 shortly before 2:30 a.m. left three people dead and at least five people hurt.
Police said at the time that a group who had been at a party at at the location were standing outside the business when gunfire erupted, killing Tyleisha Taylor, a 20-year-old Florida Department of Corrections officer.
She was believed to be an innocent bystander.
Police have still not publicly identified the two other people who were killed during the incident.
Two men who fled the scene were found dead inside a car that crashed into a wall at the campus of Miami-Dade College, police said.
Police said a group of people were gathered outside a business when people inside several vehicles opened fire before driving away from the scene.
Some of the wounded drove themselves to a local hospital for treatment.
Police did not disclose a motive in the shooting.
It was one in a series of violent shootings during the Memorial Day weekend two years ago.
A mass shooting by three masked suspects outside a banquet hall in northwest Miami-Dade left two dead and 21 wounded, including three who were hospitalized in critical condition.
A drive-by shooting on Friday, May 28 killed one person and injured six others outside a venue in the Wynwood area. Another shooting on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach left two people hurt.
