NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – A man who injured his wife in private on Saturday in Miami went on to kill her in public on Sunday in Ojus, police said.
Detectives said Carl Watts allegedly offered Shandell Harris money to stop accusing him of stabbing her six times in their Miami apartment, and when she refused, he shot her in front of her mother and daughter, police said.
“He followed her, chased her down, and shot her like an animal, like hunting,” said Aaron Batten, the victim’s cousin.
Harris was at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center, at 18900 NE 25th Ave., during her daughter’s swimming lessons when Watts, 45, killed her, police said.
Watts, a convicted felon, allegedly stood over her in the pool area after she collapsed and continued shooting until he ran out of cartridges, police said. She was 30 years old.
Watts took off running shortly after 2 p.m., but a private security guard held him at gunpoint until officers arrived, police said. Miami Fire Rescue personnel pronounced Harris dead at the scene.
Harris’s daughter, who was learning how to swim at the JCC during the murder, was born out of a prior relationship, police said. Harris and Watts did not have children together.
Watts had a history of drug trafficking, prostitution, grand theft, armed robbery, and possession of stolen property in the 1990s in Miami-Dade County.
In 2003, officers accused him of organized fraud, grand theft, and depositing checks with intent to defraud. After his conviction, Watts was in prison from Feb. 4, 2004, to July 2, 2005, when he escaped, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Watts was back in custody on April 10, 2006, and corrections officers released him on July 22, 2007, FDOC records show. In December 2007, he was arrested for kidnapping and assault.
In 2014, Watts was accused of attempting to kidnap an 18-year-old woman at a bus stop in Fort Lauderdale and he was a person of interest in the disappearance of Trukita Scott, the mother of his son. His most recent arrest in Miami-Dade had been for gambling in 2017.
Watts is facing a charge of second-degree murder with a weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Corrections officers were holding him without bond on Monday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
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