MIAMI — A man is accused of fatally shooting a Miami woman known as the matriarch of the city’s Liberty City neighborhood.
James Calvin Velazquez, 24, was charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 9 killing of Elizabeth “Miss Liz” Level, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Miami Police Chief Manuel A. Morales announced.
Velazquez was arrested in Hallandale Beach in neighboring Broward County and was also charged with possession of oxycodone, according to Broward County Sheriff’s Office online booking records.
Arrest made in the murder of Miss Liz, the Liberty City grandmother shot outside her home https://t.co/JtogV0fO4d
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) October 8, 2022
Level, an 85-year-old grandmother, had lived in the same home since 1971, the Miami Herald reported. She was shot in the head while she sat in a chair on the front porch of her home, according to WTVJ.
Police said Level was not the intended target.
“Our elderly residents should never have to fear anything while sitting peacefully on their own front porch,” Rundle said in a statement. “Yet, this is exactly the type of peace that gun-toting gang members wish to steal from the residents of our community. No member of Miami-Dade’s law enforcement community will let that happen.”
Family members told the Herald that the shooter was in a vehicle just east of Level’s home. In a video from a security camera placed in the area by the Miami Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center trailer, a bullet hit a car next to Level, who was also struck. Two men ran past her and appeared to return fire, according to the newspaper.
Police said the family members living at Level’s home are alleged gang members, WPLG-TV reported. Velazquez is alleged to be a member of a rival gang, according to the television station.
“The Miami Police Department is committed to seeking justice for all crime victims in the City of Miami, particularly for the most vulnerable among us,” Morales said in a statement.
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