On a Friday in late March of 2012, an exasperated mother drove her teenage daughter to the Florida Keys Children’s Shelter in Tavernier, a residential program with room for up to 18 kids on the island of Key Largo. By all accounts, it was a difficult ride. Twice, the girl…
Jonathan Alexander Alonso has officially been charged with the murder of his older lover, 61-year-old Lou Piper. Appearing in bond court this morning, Alonso went on a bizarre rant in which he claimed he was “God’s will.” Police found Piper’s body Wednesday inside his Sunset Harbour apartment after co-workers reported…
After Louis Piper didn’t show up to work for a few days his co-workers informed police. They went to his South Beach apartment in the Sunset Harbour neighborhood on Wednesday and found 61-year-old Piper’s decomposing body. That explained the foul stench neighbors had been smelling. Police believe Piper may have already…
If you’re staying at a hotel near Ocean Drive or Collins Avenue, you should expect to get ripped off — usually by overpriced shrimp cocktail or colossal margaritas at a sidewalk café. Baltimore Ravens running back Terrance West, however, claims he got ripped off when he was staying at the…
On Tuesday, County Commissioner Sally Heyman had a serious question for the feds who have zeroed in on Miami as a haven of illicit money laundering: “Why target just Miami-Dade County?” she asked. Commissioners then approved her resolution, which expressed grave “concerns” that Miami’s image was being hurt by suggestions…
Miami may not be considered a city of high manners, but some people get awfully awkward when you ask what exactly it is they do for a living. Not because you’re breaking any of Emily Post’s rules of etiquette by asking, but because they may be admitting to breaking some…
Angel Nolasco was arrested on charges of practicing dentistry without a license in 2011 you’d figure he’d take the hint and pack up his probes and retractors for good. Sure, the charges ending up being dropped, but that didn’t mean he was free to keep on pulling teeth. Turns out…
Waka flakka, flamed out? The synthetic-drug epidemic that has gripped Broward County and spilled over into Miami-Dade more than two years ago may already be over thanks to an unprecedented level of coordination involved in the war on that drug. Flakka, known scientifically as alpha-Pyrrolidinopentiophenone, had been floating around for years…
Stray cats riddle Miami-Dade like pigeons in New York or rats in Chicago. Except, you know, cats are cute, and come people can’t help but feed the feral felines, often to the chagrin of their neighbors. It’s a common quarrel, but one that usually doesn’t end in bullets. Then again,…
If there’s a tragic figure in the unseemly Biogenesis steroid scandal that tore apart Major League Baseball three years ago, it’s Yuri Sucart, Alex Rodriguez’s cousin and longtime drug connection. After years at A-Rod’s side, often doing his less-than-legal bidding, Sucart fell hard in a federal criminal case tied to…
If you’re heading to or from South Beach tonight you really might want to think about taking a cab or Uber. The Miami Beach police department is setting up a DUI checkpoint that starts at 8 p.m. tonight and will continue until 6 a.m. the next morning. The checkpoint will…
Miami Beach Police are asking for the publics help in identifying a suspect who allegedly attacked a visiting gay couple at the Whopper Bar in South Beach. The confrontation led to a brawl that was caught on tape by the restaurant’s security cameras. According to police, the incident occured in…
The Florida Keys are hardly a crime-free haven. Residents in the watery string of islands are used to all kinds of extra-legal shenanigans, from mass drug rings to wild backhoe joyrides. But murder is rare. And the execution-style killing of two young parents just a few feet away from their…
Mention “social media” and “Miami Police Department” in the same breath and one name will come to mind for most in South Florida: Javier Ortiz, the Miami police union chief who doubles as the king of cop trolling on Facebook and Twitter. Over the past few months, Ortiz has gotten the…
Miami-Dade Police confirmed officers shot and killed Ethan James Rincon last night. The 25-year-old had allegedly been roaming a street in Palmetto Bay with a pickaxe and was damaging cars. When officers confronted him, Rincon lunged at them, forcing them to shoot. The incident began last night before 9:30. Police…
Carl Lee Wilt, a 41-year-old Miami-Dade Metromover supervisor, is behind bars on allegations that he raped a 25-year-old Brazilian tourist who was in town for the Ultra Music Festival. It happened around 9:30 on Saturday night at the Metromover station in Park West. The woman was intoxicated and wasn’t allowed…
After continued efforts to increase safety and security at Ultra Music Festival, Miami police report a decrease in arrests from last year. Felony arrests, however, were up almost 50 percent. For the second year in a row, former Miami Beach police chief Ray Martinez served as the festival’s head of…
Guadalupe Ortiz walked out of the Ocean Drive hotel where she works into a warm March evening on the iconic beachfront stretch. After years of living and working in South Beach, Ortiz has seen her fair share of drunken debauchery: spring break, Memorial Day weekend, run-of-the-mill Friday nights. But the…
Tray Walker never had an easy path to NFL glory. After starring at Miami Northwestern alongside future star Teddy Bridgewater, he landed at a small college in Texas. His raw athletic ability netted him a draft pick with the Baltimore Ravens last year, but then his dad died the very…
Hidden cameras were rolling as Officer Jose Maldonado Dick, a seven-year veteran assigned to Wynwood, slid into a McDonald’s parking lot and calmly watched as a drug deal went down. A few days later, he did it again — this time even getting out of his car to offer the…
After a tumultuous spring break weekend in South Beach that included the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man on Ocean Drive, massive brawls that shut down the iconic street, the city’s concocting a new plan to stop the madness. A citizen petition, meanwhile, is pushing for new littering rules after…
Spring Break in South Beach got off to a chaotic start this weekend, with Miami Beach Police forced to shut down Ocean Drive on Friday night as a wave of brawls spilled through the crowd. The next night, the revelry turned bloody. As horrified partiers looked on, a 20-year-old named…
