MIAMI – A 15-year-old boy arrested in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy in Miami will remain in juvenile detention until at least his next court date, a Miami-Dade County judge said Thursday.
Jorge Franco faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of Osmand Falls, who was shot multiple times Tuesday night near a church on Northwest 10th Street and First Street.
"We would like justice for Osmand. He didn't deserve it," Falls' mother, Tammy Smith, said.
Franco did not appear in court Thursday, but his parents spoke to the judge and were told that they would be allowed to see their son only on Wednesdays and Sundays.
"We have a huge crisis in this area, and we need to address it," Miami Police Chief Rudy Llanes said at a news conference on Wednesday. "The time has come for actions and not prayers and good wishes."
Llanes said children and teens spend too much time on social media, which he calls a source of digital violence that has increased in the past year.
"We have seen instances where our youth are using social media to brag about recent fights, to communicate new threats and to arrange fighting locations, or incite fights among each other," Llanes said.
Franco had been in a gang fight on Northwest 10th Avenue and Northwest Fourth Street and approached Falls after the fight, Miami police spokeswoman Frederica Burden said.
According to Burden, Franco shot Falls twice in front of several people, then ran east on Northwest First Street.
Falls was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, where he died.
"Every day I look at the news and I see our young teenagers that are being murdered for no reason," a relative of Falls,' Maria Smith, said.
Franco has no criminal history in Florida, according to records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
His next court appearance is scheduled for April 27, when the state could decide to charge him as an adult.