‘A painful tragedy’: The family of a young mother killed in Miami Shores demands justice

Precious Paraison was breastfeeding her one-year-old daughter, Kiki, in her grandmother’s home in Little Haiti when she received a call and left in a hurry around 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Three hours later, the 20-year-old single mother was found dead inside a car in Miami Shores. She was killed with a 60-shot fusillade, according to Miami-Dade police.

“That she died like this, it’s a painful tragedy,” said Paraison’s uncle, Robison Pierre, 45, from Homestead, while holding Paraison’s crying baby Friday.

A salvo of 60 gunshots killed a 20-year-old woman found inside a car in Miami Shores

Kimanie Alicia Paraison, Precious’ grandmother, stared at the pavement on her doorstep shaking her head when Pierre added, “We are surprised that that happened to her, but now we need justice.”

Kimanie Paraison, who lived with her granddaughter and great-granddaughter and was the last person to see the victim before she was killed, remembered speaking to Precious briefly before heading to the bathroom to prepare for her nightly prayers.

Then she heard her granddaughter answering a call on the phone, picking up her keys and shutting the door behind her.

Pierre said that, as a young mother, Precious had never stayed out late at night or slept anywhere but her grandmother’s home.

So in the early hours of Thursday, June 18, Kimanie became suspicious that something had happened and alerted her sons, Pierre and the victim’s father, Dimy Paraison.

The family members tried calling Precious multiple times over the night, Pierre said. But the victim had two phones and the one they were trying to reach had by then been thrown into the water near South Beach, Pierre said.

Precious’ second cellphone is currently in the custody of Miami-Dade police, which is handling the homicide investigation.

“They knew what they were doing,” Pierre said, referring to his niece’s killers, who have not been identified by police. The family believes the homicide was premeditated, Pierre added.

At 2 a.m., Miami Shores residents heard shots being fired near Northwest 104th Street just west of Miami Avenue, where Miami-Dade police found the body inside a white Nissan Altima shortly after, the Herald reported on Thursday. The car’s right-side window appeared smashed by a stray bullet.

Precious Paraison’s family said she was a “peaceful” young woman.

“She was a very lovely niece and she never disrespected nobody,” Pierre said. “That’s made us more devastated because we… don’t know what to say. We don’t know what to think.”

Pierre and Kimani Paraison said they will take care of Precious’ daughter Kiki, but they will never be able to fill the gap left by her mother’s death.

After Florida shut down in response to the global pandemic, Precious was laid off from her job at the Häagen-Dazs booth in Miami International Airport. But Pierre said, “she sacrificed so much to buy her [daughter] everything she needed.”

“She was a good mother,” Kimanie said under her breath with tears welling up in her eyes Friday.

Pierre and Kimanie said they plan to tell Kiki about her mother’s killing when she turns 5. By then, they hope Kiki and her family members will get the justice they deserve.