Kids identified Christmas Day shooter, police said

Andrew Russell was picking up his 7-year-old daughter and three other children from their grandmother’s Christmas party when he was shot in the back and the leg, Miramar police said.

Kahlil Isiah White, 29, was charged with attempted murder, records show.

According to the arrest report, Russell told detectives he was standing outside a home in the 6600 block of Coconut Drive about 5:36 p.m. Dec. 25 when he heard arguing, followed by gunshots, and then the pain.

Russell was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital where he was expected to survive.

Detectives found two .40 caliber bullet casings on the ground and interviewed several people in the area but no one claimed to know anything.

Police also interviewed the four children that Russell had come to pick up from the party. Each child — ages 7, 10, 13, and 14 — said they knew the shooter as “Uncle Craig” and they identified White’s picture from his Facebook page.

The children said White was a family friend and that he punched Russell before shooting him, the report stated.

When told what the children had witnessed and when shown a neighbor’s surveillance video of the shooting, Russell changed his story, police said.

Russell told detectives that when he arrived he saw several men drinking alcohol in the front yard but did not notice White in the crowd.

A home’s surveillance video showed Russell walking up to a group of men and then running away about five minutes later. A man in a black shirt appeared to be shooting at him before driving off in a silver SUV, the video showed.

Russell said he thinks the motive for the shooting was a longheld grudge from when he dated White’s girlfriend years earlier, detectives said.

White was being held without bond in the Broward County Jail, records show.