Kristina divorced and moved with Chris to Pearland, Texas, near Houston. "I wanted to get him away from all that," she says.
But Chris dropped out of school and soon returned to South Florida. He worked at a car wash on NW 27th Avenue near Sun Life Stadium for a while and gained some independence. He briefly moved to Palm Beach County, where his uncle Howard Hardie helped him earn a GED. But when he moved into his grandomother's home in Miramar, the old friends came back into his life.
He began smoking pot more often than he should have. He wanted to quit, says his uncle Paul, "but he confided in me that it was hard to give it up in a day. The drugs would make him hyper. He knew we didn't approve."
The night Chris died, he was at home around 8 p.m. when Paul called from Miami International Airport. A ride had failed to appear, so could Chris pick him up? They headed back to Paul's place just off Miramar Parkway. "He was very happy that night," Paul recalls. "He said, 'You see, I am not dressing like a thug anymore.'" He talked about his new job. "He was ecstatic about that."
The two chatted for a while until Chris poured himself a cup of fruit punch and headed out the door.
"There's nothing alcoholic there?" Paul said, emerging from the bathroom. "You can't be drinking and driving."
"No, it's fruit punch."
"Where you going?" Paul asked.
"Home."
But instead, Chris headed to the Miami Gardens "candy house." He was dead within minutes. Neighbors didn't hear yelling or arguing before the shooting. He was shot twice in the head and twice in the chest.
"My guess is he probably just stopped off to buy a joint," his mom says. "This wasn't a random incident. It was somene who had a vendetta out for him. I can't imagine that someone would shoot him this way otherwise. Whoever this person is, it was someone who had knowledge of Chris. It had to be."
The police report says a maroon Dodge pickup truck pulled into the area just before the shooting and then left immediately after. Neighbors I questioned say someone stepped out of the truck and fired at Chris. The day I was there, a new red Dodge pickup was parked out front.
Though four neighbors I spoke with, including Kenya and Charlene, say cops haven't returned to question them, Miami Gardens police spokesman Sgt. Bill Bamford insists officers have scoured the area. "The leads are few, but we are certainly working this case," he says. The department, he adds, did not issue a news release about the killing, which took place around 9:20 p.m., likely scuttling any press coverage. For a reporter to get a response from any police higherup can take days.
There have been three recent murders, Bamford adds. Indeed, the city might be Florida's murder central. Twenty-two people were killed last year in Miami Gardens, whose population is less than 110,000. The murder total is higher than that of any other city in Dade County except Miami.
"I don't believe the police have done anything," Kristina says. "They told me they had handed out flyers, but when I went out there, I didn't see one. Not one."
Adds Chris's uncle Paul: "I think this should have gotten more media attention. His life had just started. We need to make people aware of this so it doesn't happen again. Next time, it could be their kid."
Our children our most valuable natural resources! To the family so sorry for your loss but I am sending you love and prayers! I can't even vision the hurt and pain of losing a child! The only thing I can do is pray and keep praying there is nothing I can say or do to take the pain away!
It appears that we've become a society that just doesn't care...To the family, I am sorry for your loss.
Regardless of his past, this 20 year old and plenty more of life to live. None of you can say what he would have become. As a mother my heart is with his mom and family. I pray that God comforts you where the evils of this world have placed sorrow and despair.
Hey Chuck, you didn't think to ask Charlene if that red Dodge pickup was the same one that was there on the night of the murder? You made an obvious effort to point out that there was a new red Dodge pickup there when you visited although the one at the murder scene was described as "maroon" so not sure what, if anything, you are implying about the truck you saw.
Miami New Times does have a flair for taking any story and making the criminal into a victim; a societal leech into a hero; a deserved fate into a cause celebre. Regardless, those involved in the criminal world do sometimes get what they deserve. I do not care about race, ethnicity or whatever other attribute they have. Those involved in the criminal world should all be eliminated. We will all be better off. (Before any of you morons begin to type, remember that the storied criminal was, well, a criminal. He was not getting his life straight, nor an angel, nor any of that other chaff. In the end, he only cost the taxpayers - us - $500,000 in medical costs).
So are you implying that he deserved for his life to be taken? Are you implying that his family shouldn't be allowed the SAME rights every other family put in this situation and see his killer brought to justice. If your judging this 20 year old based off the speculation rather than things you've seen before your very eyes than you are as ignorant as the officers who haven't taken the proper steps to bring the KILLER to justice.
Indeed! If he wasn't at a known drug house he would be alive today. Consequences.
Just because he wasn't an "angel" doesn't mean he deserved to be shot down in cold blood. He was somebodies child whom they loved very much, did she deserve to lose her son??? Is human life worth less then money??? You have ice running through your veins.
He chose his lifestyle, this is what he got. I do have ice in my veins; thank you for the compliment. Dealing with reality requires a cold objective view. And yes, yes it does mean he should be shot down in cold blood. Or, in his case, hot blood. Stop defending criminals. Stop breeding them, too. Close those legs.
Let me get my violin. My comment stands. But please do continue to defend the criminal. Defend the criminal with something factual or smart. Do it.
My my, such anger. Are you going to do a "drive-by" tonight? Did you forget that it was a criminal, not a good guy?
Wow, could you be anymore of a bastard?!?!?! I refrained from being insulting before but you clearly don't deserve it. You're a presumptuous asshole!!!!
@J.R you are a coward ass punk! s we speak someone in your family maybe geting shot and left to die in cold/hot blood. You are a heartless asshole and need to get hit by a tractor tralior for posting that comment about somene love. Go screw yourself!!! and keep your comments to yourself!!!!
IT A SHAME THAT THIS HAPPEN TO THIS YOUNG NAME.. BUT IF HE WAS WHITE WE WOULD OF HEARD ABOUT IT FROM THE FIRST DAY.
Lets not be cowards-tell who it is this person does not deserve to rome this earth without consequence-he took a life something he cannot give back who gave him this right-He is a killer and should be caught and put away for life-How cold and a BIG COWARD!!
My sympathy and condolences go out to the family. It's a shame that this youngster died in suuch a violent manner. I hope and pray the killer is caught and brought to justice. Its scary being a youngster nowadays. There's too much violence, drugs, and corruption in our society. May he rest in peace.
Urging everyone to share this story. Someone knows something. This could very well happen to anyone our children at any moment. Please don't wait until it is your child.
Amen....and may his killer find no peace or rest, until justice is served....Lord help us all
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