Rick Outzen of the Daily Beast is reporting the tragic slaying of Byrd and Melanie Billings, a wealthy North Florida couple who had 17 children, many adopted, might have been a contract hit. The suspect said that the contract price was between $20,000 and $50,000, according to the sources — who requested anonymity,…
News reports last week shot around the world — from the Chicago Tribune to MSNBC to El Mercurio of Santiago, Chile. A spurned boyfriend had plowed his motorcycle through the doorway of a Little Havana jewelry shop, barricaded himself inside, and stuffed a flaming rag into the gas tank. After…
View Larger Map Riptide is a nonviolent blog, but we’re all for self-preservation. And there really is no activity more South Floridian than pulling a gun and blasting on the schlub who just pulled a gun on you. So this evening, we propose a toast to the yet unnamed clerk at La…
Police this morning released the first details of a Saturday-night murder in Allapattah — including a sketch of the prime suspect in the killing.Around 11:45 p.m. Saturday, someone shot a man named Hector Belgrade near 2261 NW 28th St. and then ran off, says Det. Juan D’Elia of the Miami…
Criminals love Michael Rodriguez. This past June, the thin and naive 18-year-old Cash-a-Check employee was duped into giving away a bag filled with $26,000. Con artists promised the money would go to his boss’s wife. It went into their pockets instead. “They were so smart and slick,” he told Riptide back then…
Four years ago, a heavyset 26-year-old Miami woman named Rossana Miliani walked into a general store in Bryson City, North Carolina, with an older man whose hair was going gray.The man told a clerk he was a preacher who traveled to campsites around the nearby Appalachian Trail. Miliani, who had…
Miami Police officer Eric Guzman killed a 27 year old black man during a struggle at approximately 9:30 p.m. in Overtown yesterday.A five-year veteran officer, Guzman spotted Kiana Sean Lamb, who fit the description of a wanted man, at NW 5th Avenue and 6th Street. When the officer confronted Lamb,…
The slaying of Byrd and Melanie Billings of Beulah, Florida, was a tragedy. The couple raised 17 children, 12 of whom were adopted, many with special needs. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has been moving swiftly and already has seven people in custody related to the cold-blooded crime. The break-in and murders were…
When it comes to teens killed by guns in Miami, veteran Carol City Senior High social studies teacher Paul Moore has become something like the city’s tragic bard. As featured in “The Curse,” a New Times cover story published in February, he’s seen five students murdered from just one class. He’s written and spoken eloquently…
Well, this is just horrible. Melanie and Byrd Billings were found dead in the Beulah, Fl home, about 17 miles northwest of Pensacola. The Billings were parents to 16 children, 12 of whom were adopted — some with special needs. The couple appear to have been the victims of a random…
Sex Offenders banished to the Julia Tuttle Causeway now have some serious lawyers on their side. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Miami-Dade County today, claiming a 2005 ordinance “unreasonably burdens” the men. The reason: It takes away their right to housing. The complaint also points out Miami-Dade has “exacerbated…
The male-to-female transsexual sent to jail after a client’s botched cosmetic procedure ended in death was arrested again this morning. Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Florida Department of Health agents raided the quiet two-story home of Donnie Hendrix at 8 a.m. They collared her for practicing medicine without a…
What’s the saying? One tequila …two tequila …three tequila …floor. Well, sadly Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth downed four shots of tequila and didn’t hit the floor. He hit the road in his Bentley, and then hit a pedestrian crossing the MacArthur Causeway.Miami beach Police released an interview they conducted…
What better way to start off your post-holiday week than getting some gruesome new details in the case of alleged serial cat killer Tyler Weinman? After weeks of local media fighting for its release, the arrest affidavit for the case is finally available. Police had their eyes on Weinman for…
In April, we reported on the Craigslist Killings, in which murderers lured victims to their deaths using the classifieds site. Maybe my tale of barely escaping the jaws of a Craiglist predator won’t make national news, but fuck me if it wasn’t traumatizing. I almost sent my PlayStation 3 to…
Everglades Correctional Officer Shamel Watson thought he was negotiating with an inmate’s family member to smuggle in 1 lb of marijuana, 4 ounce of cocaine, and two cellphones to the inmate. Everglades Correctional Officer Shamel Watson is apparently stupid. When he went to go collect the contraband in Collier County instead…
In this week’s New Times, we report new statistics showing how President Obama’s “Secure Communities” program pulls Miami cops into the deportation game. The program, which runs anyone booked into any Miami-Dade County jail through a national Homeland Security database, has already flagged 8,407 illegal immigrants since January. Critics fear…
What is heroin, you say? Cocaine? Automatic weapons?Try cigarettes. As Western countries hike taxes higher and higher to try to curb smoking, black-market, dirt-cheap smokes are flooding the markets. Some are counterfeits, rolled out by the millions in filthy factories literally buried underground in southern China. Some are legit, smuggled…
A body was found lying on the shoulder of a road near South Miami Heights on Sunday. Police rushed to SW 135th Avenue and 200th Street to respond to a shots-fired call at 6:19 p.m. Upon arrival, officers discovered Fidel Ruz Moreno, 35, lying on the pavement. CBS4 is reporting a dad…
Bernie Madoff is facing 150 years in prison, but that’s nothing compared to the 400-year sentence that could await former Miami businessman Edward Hugh Okun.Not much ink has been spilled locally about Okun, but we’ll bring you up to speed. At some point, Okun, now in his late 50s, met Simone…
Police fatally shot a machete-wielding man who was attacking another man on a northwest Miami street Saturday evening.A Miami-Dade corrections officer summoned a Miami Police officer at 6:35 p.m., after he witnessed a man swinging a machete at another man on NW 12th Street and 12th Avenue, the Miami Herald reported.Both officers…
Bernie Madoff, the West Palm Beach financial demon who ripped off thousands of investors, many in South Florida, has been sentenced to the maximum 150 years behind bars. “I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that. I live in a tormented state now, knowing all…
