Storage Wars: Miami Star's Son Murders Woman During Viewing Party

Storage Wars: Miami has aired only two episodes, and already the show has produced an offscreen tragedy. Hashim Saeed Pew, the 23-year-old son of cast member Kevin Pew, is behind bars for allegedly murdering a 19-year-old woman at this father's home during a viewing party last week. 

The murder was originally reported last week by local media without the reality-TV twist. 

According to Fox News, Pew had invited his family and several friends to his Pembroke Pines home October 13 to watch an episode of his new show. 

“The family, from what I understand, was at the father’s house to watch the episode that he was going to appear in on TV,” a police spokesperson told Fox. “The victim was sitting on the sofa in front of the suspect. She got up to get a blanket because she was cold, and he, unprovoked, shot her.”

The victim, Janel Hamilton, was sitting on a couch. The younger Pew was sitting behind her on a barstool. When Hamilton stood up to get a blanket, Pew shot her from behind. He then approached her and shot her one more time.

The elder Pew and another man tackled the younger Pew. 

"She's dead as a f——— dawg," Hashim Pew allegedly yelled during the struggle, according to an arrest report. 

According to Local 10, Hamilton was Hashim's mother's goddaughter. The young woman worked at Macy's at the Pembroke Lakes Mall. Originally from London, she was planning to start school at Kennesaw State University in January and hoped to receive a law degree. Hamilton was staying with the Pews in the meantime because her school transcripts had not yet been transferred from the United Kingdom. Her 20th birthday would have been on Halloween. 

"She was so intelligent and so brave, a happy, pleasant, loving girl, and I just can't understand why this had to happen, but only God knows," Verion McGann, Hamilton's great-aunt, told the Sun-Sentinel. "They have no motive. There were no issues, no nothing."

Police recovered the murder weapon, a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun, and determined it had been stolen during a car burglary in Central Florida in 2008. 

Hashim Pew already has a lengthy arrest record that includes charges of grand theft auto and misdemeanor weapons charges. He's being held without bond on charges of first-degree murder. 


Storage Wars: Miami is the latest spinoff of the popular A&E show in which participants bid against one another for the content of abandoned storage units with the hopes of finding profitable treasure. A news release from the network described the elder Pew as having the most experience of any of the buyers on the spinoff, "as well as the quickest wit."