Police have identified a woman who was shot and killed behind a northwest Miami-Dade preschool in what authorities described as a domestic altercation Wednesday afternoon.
Michelle Wilcox, 33, was shot behind The Academy of Knowledge Preschool at 2240 NW 119th St. just after 3 p.m. Family members gathered at the shooting scene late Wednesday said the Opa-Locka woman leaves behind a young son.
Police investigators believe the shooting stemmed from an argument Wilcox had with an unidentified man at a house close to the preschool. At some point, Wilcox left the home, possibly running as many as two blocks before she was fatally shot near an abandoned lot.
Miami-Dade police say her killer, who is still at large, jumped into a white sedan and fled. But his brazen act was caught on the nearby preschool's security camera system.
"We have cameras in the school, so from what we could see, there was a (person) running after the female and shot her," said Lisa Hadley Brown, the preschool's owner.
The preschool was put on lockdown following the incident. Parents raced over to pick up their children from the school, where more than 120 students 5 and under play and learn.
Parents were shaken up, but relieved to find no one at the pre-school was involved.
"I was very nervous for a minute, but he's ok. I have him so we're on our way out," said one parent as she walked her son to the car.
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Wilcox was an elementary school teacher at the Center of Life Academy. One of her students, Shir'niya Charles, said Wilcox was the reason she plans to head to college.
"My heart feels tarnished right now because she was such a good person and it's just not fair," Charles said.
Charles said Wilcox taught her SAT math prep.
“Anything you would ask for, she would do it," she said. "She would go out of her way to do it for you, she was so sweet and full of life.”
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