MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — A Shot Spotter alert detected 54 rounds fired during a recent shooting that killed a 21-year-old man in Miami-Dade County’s West Perrine neighborhood, according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy’s arrest report.
There were .223 caliber rifle casings, 9 mm handgun casings, and .40 caliber handgun casings near where deputies found Kenneth Walters wounded along West Guava Street, according to the deputy’s arrest report.
A witness and “multiple confidential informants” identified Vernon “Hank” Kelson as the rifle-wielding shooter who “stood over” Walters and “fired” before fleeing on March 21, according to the arrest report.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel took Walters to Jackson South Medical Center, where he died at 10:40 p.m. on March 21.
A few days later, a medical examiner reported Walters’s cause of death was “multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and extremities,” and the manner of death was a homicide.
Deputies arrested Kelson, 25, of Coral Springs, shortly before 10:40 p.m. on Tuesday at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale, according to the deputy’s arrest report.
Miami-Dade corrections booked Kelson shortly before 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.
Kelson appeared in Miami-Dade bond court on Wednesday morning. A judge denied him bail. He faced a second-degree murder with a firearm charge.
Kelson was out on probation, so he had a warrant case pending for a case of written threats to kill or cause bodily injury, use or display of a firearm while committing a felony, and openly carrying a weapon.
Local 10 News Assignment Editors Mercedes Cevallos and Carson Merlo contributed to this report.
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