NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A 23-year-old man who appeared in Miami-Dade County court on Wednesday and faced 14 charges was among the four suspects arrested after a man was fatally shot in the chest during his 30th birthday party, records show.
Detectives accused Trayquan “Tray” Williams of being among the shooters who fired over 30 rounds during a party that started at midnight and ended shortly before 1:30 a.m., on Aug. 20, at 2020 NE 169 St., in North Miami Beach.
The crime scene at the fenced outdoor area of the Harvard House, an affordable housing rental community, included a parking lot and was near a children’s playground, two basketball courts at Victory Park, and Fulford Park.
“Several groups of males approached the fence ... produced firearms,” a police officer wrote about what witnesses saw before Melvin Victor, an employee of the city of North Miami Beach, was fatally shot during his birthday party.
Surveillance videos related to the shooting in North Miami Beach and another shooting in June, at the UPS Center in Hialeah, helped NMBPD detectives identify Williams, of West Little River, as a murder suspect, according to an arrest report in the case.
Williams was “wearing the same clothing” during the shootings in North Miami Beach and Hialeah, a police officer wrote in the arrest report.
Prosecutors filed a case against Williams on Wednesday for 13 felonies and one misdemeanor, court records show. The felonies are first-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder, and seven counts of criminal mischief over $1,000. The misdemeanor charge is for discharging a firearm in a residential area.
A judge denied Williams’s bond on the six felonies for murder and attempted murder, and granted the prosecution’s request for pre-trial detention, so corrections held him at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Wednesday night, records show.
Police officers had arrested Williams on Tuesday after following him from a hotel in Dania Beach to a traffic stop at Northeast 89 Street and Second Avenue in El Portal, according to the NMBPD officer’s arrest report.
During the investigation that followed the traffic stop, police officers seized three handguns, two AR-style pistols, and ammunition that matched “the same calibers recovered from the shooting scene,” according to the NMBPD officer’s report.
Miami-Dade prosecutors also filed cases against the three other suspects in the case: Jamoree Pitts, Antoin Eleby, and Eileen Garcia.
Pitts, 22, and Eleby, 25, also both face a first-degree murder charge.
Police officers arrested Eleby, who lives in the same house where Williams lives at Northwest 96 Street and 21 Avenue in West Little River, on Tuesday during the traffic stop at El Portal.
A witness at the birthday party had recognized Eleby as one of the shooters, according to the NMBPD officer’s report.
Garcia, 25, who lives in an apartment across the street from where the fatal shooting happened on Aug. 20, was “purchasing food and other items” with the suspects after the fatal shooting, according to police.
Detectives accused Garcia of knowing that the suspects had been involved in the crime, not reporting it, and lying about it during questioning after her arrest on Tuesday at El Portal, records show.
Garcia “changed or added details of actions she took over the past two weeks after the shooting,” a NMBPD police officer wrote in a report about her arrest.
Garcia faced a charge of accessory after the fact, a capital offense.
Prosecutors had filed a case against Pitts, who had already been arrested on Aug. 28, on Aug. 29 for the same 14 charges that Williams faced. A judge also granted the prosecution’s motion for Pitts’s pre-trial detention.
Corrections held Pitts at the Metrowest Detention Center. Garcia, whose bond was $15,000, and Eleby, whose bond was also $15,000, remained at TGKCC on Wednesday night. A judge ordered house arrest for Eleby after his release on bond.
The court set Pitts’s arraignment at 9 a.m. on Sept. 29. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Tanya Brinkley was set to preside over the four cases.
The public record did not reveal details about a motive. A day after the shooting, Jude Denozil described his brother Victor as someone who didn’t get into arguments, was reliable, and was an all-around “respectful young man.”
Denozil said he heard the gunshots and heard his friends shouting, “Melvin! Melvin!” He said he ran and saw Victor on the floor, so he woke up their mom, who had been sleeping in a second-floor apartment, but he did not let her see him.
“He didn’t deserve that,” Denozil said on Aug. 21. “Melvin didn’t do anything to no one.”
The NMBPD’s investigation was ongoing on Wednesday.
Related stories
- Family wants answers after North Miami Beach man killed while celebrating 30th birthday
- Suspect arrested in North Miami Beach birthday shooting that left man dead
- North Miami Beach police make 3 new arrests in killing of man celebrating 30th birthday
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
