Man Arrested In Deadly Miami Beach Shooting; Victim's Mom 'Happy' Police Found Suspect
MIAMI (CBS4) - Miami Beach police have made an arrest in a deadly shooting last weekend.
Police confirm that Keith Brown, 33, has been taken into custody in Miami-Dade. He will be taken to Miami Beach headquarters where he will be interviewed by detectives.
The shooting happened Sunday, October 6th, at 10th Street and Collins Avenue.
Brown is accused of shooting 32-year-old Latoya Michelle Wiggins. Surveillance tape obtained by CBS4 showed worried people scattering after the shots were fired. One witness said he heard four shots.
Police said it's not known why Wiggins was shot just before she was to celebrate her 33rd birthday this Saturday.
Family members said Wiggins, a mother of one, had "gotten in trouble in Miami."
Police said Wiggins was a cooperative witness in an active human trafficking case.
In a phone call Friday to CBS4's Peter D'Oench, Wiggins' mother, Tonya Wiggins, said she was grateful for the arrest and can't believe that her daughter is gone. She said she hopes that he will pay for the crime.
"I am just happy they got him," she said. "I was worried that they might not find him but you know he had nowhere to run and hide and his grandmother was not happy that he had done it and she had heard about it. She meant the world to me. I loved my daughter and now she is gone. I have to tell you that it hurts."
"I hope he will be punished for what he did," she said. "I hope he will spend life in prison. Everyone loved her and that's why they are hurting. They can't believe this happened. She was a happy go lucky girl and she always had a smile on her face. She was always trying to be happy. It just hurts that she is gone. He did not have to kill her."
Earlier this week, Tonya Wiggins told CBS4's Hank Tester she had no doubts it was Brown who killed her daughter.
"When the police called me to tell me she was dead, I knew he had killed her," said Wiggins who lives in North Carolina.
Brown's grandmother, Roberta Flennory, said he "has some serious mental health problems. He doesn't seem right in the mind to me. He served time in prison. He did 10 years."
Wiggins' aunt said Brown was trouble.
"It was not a healthy relationship for her – lots of arguments and I have been encouraging her to get out of the situation," said her aunt, Tosha Brown. "She had plans to come home at the end of this month, but unfortunately she did not make it."
Police had revealed that Wiggins was a cooperating witness in a separate human trafficking case. It's not known if that had any relationship to the crime.
Police appealed for the public's help on Wednesday when they released surveillance tape of their suspect running away from the crime on 10th St. near Collins Avenue.
One witness told CBS4 that he clearly heard four shots being fired.
Other surveillance tape showed people running away from the scene after the shots were fired.
Officer Ernesto Rodriguez, a Miami Beach police spokesman, had said that Brown was a "dangerous" person who police needed to get off the street.
