Murder of McDonald’s cashier saving to go to college remains unsolved in Miami-Dade

Family asks public to help detectives solve student’s murder in West Perrine

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Jean Wesner Saint-Jean worked as a cashier at McDonald’s. The 19-year-old Miami Senior High School student was saving to move to Texas to go to college. A killer in southwest Miami-Dade County recently ended his plans.

The shooting that killed Saint-Jean was about 7:50 p.m., on Nov. 17. He was walking at Southwest 173rd Street and 103rd Avenue near the West Perrine Park. Doctors at Jackson South Medical Center pronounced him dead.

Mona Saint-Jean is one of his seven siblings. The Haitian-American family was grieving on Tuesday at St Fort’s Funeral Home & Cremation in North Miami Beach. She said he was a positive young man who didn’t like conflict.

“There was not one time any of us had an argument with him,” she said.

Jean Wesner Saint-Jean, 19, was working in McDonald's to save for college. He was killed Nov. 17 while walking in Miami-Dade County's West Perrine neighborhood. (MDPD)

She and other members of Saint-Jean’s family are also asking the public to help Miami-Dade detectives to solve his murder.

“It’s very frustrating because we don’t have any piece of information,” Mona Saint-Jean said. “We only know that he is deceased.”

Leonie Hermantin, a Haitian community advocate in South Florida, said Saint-Jean had defied all odds while growing up in South Florida and someone needs to speak up for him and his family.

“To have that promise shut down by cowards and to have no one from the community step up and say, ‘We saw what happened!’ This is what hurts,” Hermantin said about the need for public tips on the crime.

Leonie Hermantin, of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, is asking the public for help with solving the murder of a 19-year-old student with a promising future. (Copyright 2020 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.)

Hermantin and detectives are asking anyone with information about the murder who wants to remain anonymous to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477. Hermantin is also asking anyone who wants to help the family to cover the cost of the funeral expenses to contact the management of St Fort’s Funeral Home & Cremation.


About the Authors:

Saira Anwer joined the Local 10 News team in July 2018. Saira is two-time Emmy-nominated reporter and comes to South Florida from Madison, Wisconsin, where she was working as a reporter and anchor.

The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.