Cops find 15-year-old girl whose disappearance led to 3 family members getting shot
Miami Gardens police found the 15-year-old girl whose disappearance led to the shooting of three of her family members on Friday.
Janiya Johnson, 15, was found at 9:15 a.m. Saturday in the 15900 block of Northwest 27th Avenue. She had been missing since Wednesday.
Officers believe that Janiya may have been with William Brice, 21, at some point before Friday morning’s shooting in the 15700 block of Northwest 23rd Avenue Road.
Three of Janiya’s family members — her mother Kwanyetta Norris, 33, aunt Loretta Foster, 32, and uncle Kelvin Agurs, 21 — were shot by Brice when they went looking for her in the West Bunche Park neighborhood, police said.
The three victims, who did not suffer life-threatening injuries, confronted Brice, according to the arrest report released by Miami Gardens Officer Carlos Austin. Brice “became irate when questioned by the victims about the girl,” the report said.
When one of the family members snapped his photo, this further angered him and, according to police, he pulled out a gun and shot at all three.
The shooting at Northwest 30th Avenue and East Bunche Park Drive led to an hours-long lockdown.
Brice, listed as homeless on the arrest report, turned himself in Friday night and told police he changed his appearance during the manhunt and threw the gun into a canal. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder in the first degree with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery and bodily harm with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon.
Brice is at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and is being held without bond.
Howard Cohen: 305-376-3619, @HowardCohen