Months after a 20-year-old man was shot and killed in Miami-Dade County, Florida, authorities suspect his younger sister was involved in the crime.
According to a press release from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Deashia Smith, 17, and Elton Hightower, 19, have been charged with second-degree murder with a deadly weapon in the death of Rae’quan Smith.
Rae’quan Smith was shot on February 7 on Southwest 266th Street in Naranja, and deputies arrived shortly before midnight. When they arrived, they said they discovered the victim had been transported to a nearby hospital. He was eventually pronounced dead.
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Deputies said that their investigation revealed that Hightower and Deashia Smith fired shots “in the direction” of Rae’quan Smith, and that Deashia Smith possessed a firearm “utilized in the homicide.” The two siblings shared an address in Homestead, Florida, while Hightower lived in Florida City.
According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, investigators discovered the weapon while carrying out a search warrant at Deashia Smith’s home. According to the complaint, Deashia Smith’s mother and sister were both aware that she owned the gun, but her mother claimed that her daughter “purposefully hid the firearm from her.”
A witness allegedly told police that he had a “firsthand account” of the shooting.
“The witness advised that the defendant, Elton Hightower, and the co-defendant, Deashia Smith, saw the victim standing on the side of the street and both discharged their firearms toward the victim, then fled the scene,” according to the allegations.
Deashia Smith and Hightower were arrested on Wednesday. According to WPLG, the former was already in the nearby Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a charge of felony firearm possession.