Teen fatally shot in restaurant parking lot
More than two days after a 16-year-old girl was shot and killed in the parking lot of an iconic restaurant near Miami International Airport long after the business had closed, police haven’t found the shooter or said publicly why a group of teens had gathered there in the early morning hours.
Ana Alvarez-Hernandez was killed at 2:45 a.m. Sunday in the parking lot of the 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant, a popular spot just south of the airport where diners can watch planes land and take off and listen to air traffic control on headphones.
A law enforcement source said the teen was driven to the hospital by her boyfriend, where she was pronounced dead. According to police, for some unknown reason, at least one person pulled a gun from a car and began shooting at another group of people. Everyone ran for cover, but Ana was struck.
Police said they don’t believe she was the intended target at the restaurant at 1395 NW 57th Ave., which had been closed for the night for nearly three hours.
Police didn’t immediately notify the public of the shooting. On Monday, Miami-Dade police asked the community for help in the case, which is being treated as a homicide. Claiming exemptions in the law that apply to juvenile victims, Miami-Dade police declined to release much information on the shooting victim or the incident, to the public.
According to a law enforcement source, Ana and her boyfriend were in the parking lot with some other friends when a dark-colored vehicle with three people inside pulled up. One of them went to the trunk and retrieved a firearm and began shooting.
Ana lived in Miami not far from the shooting, police said, and attended Coral Gables High School. On Tuesday, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho expressed his condolences to Ana’s family. “It is infuriating and tragic that a young woman with so much promise could lose her life in such a senseless way; victim of an indiscriminate bullet that should never have been fired,” he tweeted. “My deepest condolences to Ana’s family during this unbearable time.”
Police described the restaurant parking lot as a place near the airport where kids gather to hang out and watch the planes.
“The fact that they were just shooting into a crowded parking lot shows a reckless disregard for life,” said Chris Thomas, a spokesman for Miami-Dade police, who added that witnesses described the parking lot as a popular teen hangout.