MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A man is facing a second-degree murder charge after Miami-Dade deputies said he was involved in a deadly February shooting in the unincorporated Naranja area.
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Deputies arrested Elton Hightower, 19, of Florida City, on Wednesday.
He and a co-defendant, whose name was redacted from a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest report, are accused of killing 20-year-old Raequan Smith.
According to the report, MDSO deputies responded to the 13800 block of Southwest 266th Street at around 11:55 p.m. on Feb. 7 after being alerted by ShotSpotter to 39 rounds being fired in the area.
Deputies said they “discovered multiple casings on the scene scattered within the block.”
According to the report, staff at HCA Florida’s freestanding emergency room in Cutler Bay called MDSO soon after to report that two men had brought Smith in with “multiple gunshot wounds.”
Doctors pronounced Smith dead about 45 minutes after the shooting.
Authorities said a witness came forward on April 23 and identified Hightower as a suspect.
“(Redacted) saw the victim standing on the side of the street and (redacted) discharged their firearms towards the victim, then fled the scene,” the report states.
Authorities said cellphone data placed Hightower at the crime scene.
Deputies said they detained Hightower at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building courthouse in Miami and arrested him after questioning at MDSO’s Homicide Bureau in Doral.
According to the report, Hightower “denied any involvement” in the killing.
As of Thursday, he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed in jail records as “to be set.”