Man Arrested For Allegedly Shooting Woman In Face During Purse Snatching
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A 20-year-old man is being held without bond after Miami Police say he shot a mother in the face with his gun after she gave him her purse during a robbery.
According to a police report, 20-year-old Kamiah Lanier was arrested by a Miami-Dade Police Robbery Intervention Detail at a home in Florida City. He is reportedly denying his involvement in the crime, but he is now facing multiple charges after 36-year-old Evelyn Matamoro was shot on Thursday.
Lanier is charged with armed robbery with a firearm, attempted murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and use of a firearm during a robbery.
And late Friday afternoon, Miami Police revealed that Lanier was tied to another robbery of a woman in Miami on Wednesday.
A check of records showed that he was on probation for two cases from 2011 that involved false imprisonment and attempted robbery.
The case was a priority for police and solved because of some good police work, according to Miami Police spokeswoman, Officer Kenia Reyes.
"From the very beginning, detectives began pacing the steps where this gunman may have gone," Reyes told CBS4's Peter D'Oench.
Police said Matamor stopped at a Chinese restaurant at 5300 N.W. 7th Avenue around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and as she was leaving the restaurant, she was approached by Lanier.
A police report said she said a few sentences in Spanish and Lanier did not understand her. At gunpoint, she gave up her purse. Moments later, she was shot in the face.
Amid tears, Matamoro's sister, Hazel Amador, told CBS4, "My mom called me to tell me the news that my sister had been shot."
Matamoro's mother, Isabel Quinto, said of her daughter, "She got down to get food and when she was getting back into the car, a man grabbed her bag and she did not want to let it go and that's when he shot her."
The report said that Lanier fled on foot to a nearby home where a grey Dodge charger was waiting for him. An off-duty police officer spotted him and the vehicle and took note of the tag as it took off.
Police said the tag came back to Lanier's sister. She was later stopped by an officer who noticed her license tag and cited for a traffic infraction. Police said she admitted to driving her brother to and from the home near the crime scene, but she said did not know her brother was going to commit a crime.
Reyes said she will not face charges in this crime.
Police meanwhile went to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital late Thursday night and showed Matamoro a photo of Lanier.
"She was able to identify the man as the man who committed this horrible crime," said Reyes. "He has a criminal past and some it is very violent."
A Miami-Dade Police Robbery Intervention Detail (R.I.D.) arrested Lanier at a home in Florida City.
"When they arrested him, they not only arrested him, but they were able to recover a firearm and now we are trying to see if it is the same firearm used in the commission of this terrible crime," said Reyes.
A spokeswoman at Jackson Memorial Hospital said that Matamoro was in good condition and was stable. Family sources said her mouth had been wired shut after surgery from the bullet wound.
