Two detained, then released, as BSO investigates 3-year-old’s shooting death at motel
Two people were briefly detained, then released, in the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s ongoing investigation into the deadly shooting of a 3-year-old girl at a Tamarac motel Saturday morning.
The shooting happened at the Extended Stay America Motel in the 3000 block of West Commercial Boulevard in the Fort Lauderdale suburb some time around 8 a.m. Saturday.
Deputies with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Tamarac Fire Rescue responded around 8:20 a.m. to a call about a shooting. At the motel, they found the child, with a gunshot wound, accompanied by a woman, according to BSO spokeswoman Claudinne Caro.
Caro said deputies and Lauderhill police officers detained two people who were driving a U-Haul truck who they suspected were connected with the shooting. However, those people “were subsequently released,” Caro said.
A woman who identified herself as the girl’s mother told Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami that she woke up in the morning to find her daughter lying in a pool of blood.
Paramedics said the child died at the motel. Deputies have not released names or details about the young victim or the relationship between the child and adult.
On Sunday, BSO said it would not be releasing the girl’s name, citing “Marsy’s Law,” which was meant to protect living victims of crime, but has been used with increased frequency by South Florida police agencies as a reason to not release names of homicide victims.
A woman who has been living at Extended Stay America since June told CBS News Miami that the motel is frequented by drug users, and since she’s been there she’s experienced “a lot of smoking at my door and people knocking at my door at certain times of the night. And, a lot of activities going on outside.”
The BSO’s homicide unit is investigating. Anyone with information is asked to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or online at browardcrime stoppers.org.