MIAMI — Just hours after his murder in Miami, slain activist Dwight C. Wells’s grieving mother, Mary Brown, talked to Local 10 News about her son’s legacy after years of annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day demonstrations.

Brown, a musician and singer at her Christian church, said she was proud of him for starting the Wheels Up Guns Down movement to encourage young people to be inspired to change and engage in peaceful activism.

“My son was a pillar for this community. He would always give someone the shirt off his back,” Brown said. “I miss him, but he is with the Lord and I will see him in Heaven.”

Wells, a restaurant owner, had several organizations registered with the state, including Miami Ride Life in 2014, Saving Our Queens in 2016, and Bikes Up Guns Down and Wheels Up Guns Down in 2022.

“My nephew did amazing stuff for the community,” Suzette Hester, his grieving aunt, said. “He didn’t deserve this!”

Wells was playing dominoes on Friday night with two other players in front of his restaurant, Winning and Won Turkey Legs, at 5090 NW 17 Ave., when he was shot, police said.

“The subject walked up to him and shot him,” Officer Michael Vega, a spokesman for the Miami Police Department, wrote in a statement on Saturday morning.

Local 10 News interviewed him in 2022 and 2023 when he dreamed of partnering with authorities to allow young people to participate in the annual Wheels Up Guns Down demonstration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“We’re looking to do it more legitimately and keep it more official,” Wells said.

Some of Wells’s 10,000 Facebook friends were also expressing their grief on Friday night and on Saturday morning.

“So heart broken, so proud of the Man you had become,” Monique Huggins wrote. “You did so much for the community. My deepest condolences to the Family luv you so much Ms Mary God Bless all of you guys.”

On social media, Wells often shared about his experience with rehabilitation, his belief in the power of prayer, and his growing interest in Miami’s Black history.

“Yoo. This one hit different fam. M.M.I.H (MAKE MOVEMENTS IN HEAVEN) A REAL CITY STAND UP GUY — feeling emotional," Lerone Harden wrote on Facebook.

On his social media biographies, Wells was proud of having attended Miami Northwestern. State records show he had registered his restaurant in 2024 after working on a music agency in 2020 and marketing agency in 2021.

Posts on social media show Wells was known as someone who had turned his life around. He was open about his experience as a convicted felon and about wanting to help young people stay away from crime.

“I came home from doing 10years in a State institution and the things that the most high have been allowing me to do with and for a community ... have been great and I’m Thankful,” Wells wrote in 2023.

The Florida Department of Corrections released Wells from prison on Nov. 1, 2013, 20 days before his 29th birthday.

Miami-Dade County court records show he had been convicted of crimes committed when he was 19 years old. The crimes were all in 2004: Second-degree murder, two counts of armed robbery, and an armed carjacking. He was sentenced to a decade in prison on May 7, 2007, after spending time in jail without bond. Records show he was in prison from June 6, 2007 to Oct. 1, 2013.

In 2024, Wells shared about suffering burns while on the job. Through his hard work, Wells had found success with his restaurant.

Artist David Anasagasti, better known as “Ahol Sniffs Glue,” painted a mural at his business. Local critics had featured him on TikTok and Instagram. Event organizers had started to recognize him as a “Southern BBQ master chef.”

Wells was proud that local pastors, who believed in the love of Jesus Christ, promoted his restaurant.

“When the Local pastors pull up you know it’s up,” Wells wrote on Instagram. “Thanks to Pastor Billy Strange and all over his members it’s up over at Winning and Won Turkey Legs.”

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 to remain anonymous.

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‘A pillar for this community’: Slain activist Dwight C. Wells started ‘Wheels Up Guns Down’ as anti-violence effort

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