Philadelphia man arrested after Florida man was shot on Miami Beach’s Alton Road
What appeared to be a verbal back-and-forth on surveillance cameras turned into a one-sided shooting Monday morning, Miami Beach police say, and the arrest of a 26-year-old man from Philadelphia.
Quadir Wilson sits in Turner Guilford Knight Correction Center, about 1,200 miles from his Tolbut Street home, after being cuffed on charges of attempted murder and resisting an officer without violence. Robert DeWitt, the 45-year-old shot on Alton Road, is still in Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition, Miami Beach police said.
READ MORE: Man shot in front of McDonald’s in Miami Beach’s South Beach area
While media reports said DeWitt was unhoused and the arrest report lists his residence only as the 33139 ZIP Code section of Miami Beach, another database says he lived in Ocala until recently. He’s lived in northern Indiana (La Porte, South Bend) where he has at least one relative and Arkansas (Jonesboro, Lake City).
At 2:14 a.m. Monday, DeWitt was sitting between SoBe Liquors at 1609 Alton Rd., and the McDonald’s on the corner of 16th Street and Alton Road.
A half hour in South Beach
The arrest report says surveillance cameras pick up Wilson riding a Citibike past up Alton Road past DeWitt and swinging down Lincoln Road to the McDonald’s on Washington Avenue. Then, Wilson is spotted riding back up Lincoln Road to Alton, turning south, and rides past DeWitt again.
“Words are exchanged between the two,” the report says.
Cameras see Wilson ride on, turn left on 16th Street and head east. He comes back about three minutes later, 2:43 a.m., this time on foot. The report says cameras catch Wilson walking up to the sitting DeWitt and shooting him twice before running back from where he came on 16th Street.
Beach police say two 9 mm casings of the Blazer brand were found. Also found, the report says, was additional video showing Wilson walking into the 1500 block of Lenox Court and riding his bike south on 15th Street. The report says four officers found Wilson at around 15th Court and Alton Road, a half block from the shooting, wearing the same shorts and shoes as on camera.
The report says Wilson had a 9 mm automatic handgun in his waistband containing Blazer bullets, one of which was chambered.
Wilson took advantage of his right to remain silent.
