FLORIDA CITY, Fla. — Gang unit detectives reported Atahj Lee is known in Miami-Dade’s Deep South as 556, after the caliber of a bullet tied to assault rifles used in combat tactics, records show.
On Wednesday night, a Florida City detective asked Lee, 21, if he wanted to talk about why gang unit detectives had arrested him at the Loren Roberts Park in Florida City.
“Naw,” Lee said and didn’t utter another word while at the Florida City Police Station, according to the detective’s arrest report.
The Florida City detective who questioned him was investigating an armed robbery that happened in broad daylight on May 8.
A group of heavily armed robbers terrorized the customers and workers of a carwash at Redland Road and Southwest 328 Street, records show.
Two of the victims said they were smoking marijuana when they noticed a white Dodge Ram kept passing by, so they assumed that they were undercover police officers, but they were not, according to a police report.
A trio of robbers armed with guns and a rifle jumped out of the Dodge Ram and took a gold chain and more than $1,000 in cash, according to a police report.
One of the robbers struggled to multitask as he used his olive green sweater to cover his face and held a weapon, according to the police report.
“The sweater kept sliding down,” a police officer wrote in his report, and added that this made it possible for a victim to identify Lee during a photo lineup on May 20.
Lee has a criminal record going back years in Miami-Dade.
Just days before his 19th birthday, he was arrested for fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer. Months later, he was arrested for possession of an illegal weapon. And by the time he was 20, he faced a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
On Nov. 1, a Miami-Dade judge sentenced Lee to three years of community supervision for the three crimes. His probation started on Dec. 16 and was set to end on Dec. 15, 2027, but that is likely to change.
On Thursday morning, Lee was back at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with two pending criminal cases and three warrant cases for probation violation. A Miami-Dade judge denied him bond.
Lee faced four new charges: Possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon, armed robbery, burglary, and aggravated assault with a firearm.
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