Veteran says police showed up to her home looking for a man already in custody

Naomi Simmons says she was alone on June 14 at the home she shares with her 7-year-old daughter when a sudden banging startled her. 

“Heard a loud bam on my daughter’s room window,” Simmons said. “When I opened the door, there were two guns pointed at me … I said, why are you guys at my door pointing guns?”

The men with guns were Miami-Dade Police officers but she says they didn’t announce who they were before she opened the door. 

“They didn’t say anything, so I just thought it was random people,” she added. 

Simmons says officers later told her they had a warrant for a man named Marquise Wiley, wanted for a felony gun charge.

“It was an address that he had on his I.D.," she said.

She says officers told her the address on Northwest 22nd Avenue was previously associated with Wiley, though Simmons says she and her daughter have lived in that home for over a year. 

“I’m still not sleeping, I’m still having nightmares,” she said.

Simmons, an Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan, says the encounter left her afraid and angry. 

“I already suffer from PTSD from my time in Afghanistan,” Simmons said.

“A lot of people got killed like that,” said her neighbor Only Bryant. 

Bryant says he’s also a veteran who served in Vietnam, and officers banged on his door that day, too. 

“I heard a loud knock, so I came and opened the door the guy told me to close the door," he said.

Simmons says as soon as officers left her home, she got on her cellphone, and within minutes, on a court website, she was able to find where Wiley actually was.   

“The person was already incarcerated,” she said. 

In fact, Wiley had been in custody for months as he was dealing with two criminal cases in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. 

In January, court records show he was transferred to a Broward jail to stand trial for his involvement in a 2020 masked robbery at a jewelry store. On May 9, he was found guilty in that case and sentenced to 10 years and three months in state prison.  

“I was able to find it with no resources and a cellphone on my couch,” Simmons said.

Miami-Dade Police tell us a judge then issued a warrant to bring Wiley back to Miami-Dade County for his ongoing gun case. 

The Broward Sheriff’s Office says he was in their jail that whole time until he was transferred to state prison on June 13, a day before Miami-Dade officers went to Simmons' home. 

“He was at the prison before they even came to my door,” Simmons said.

NBC6 Investigates asked Miami-Dade Police how this could happen. 

After our story aired, a spokesperson told us they checked federal, state and local Miami-Dade County databases and did not see Wiley in custody. It appears they did not check the Broward County database.

MDPD told NBC6 Investigates BSO should have checked on Wiley’s status before transferring him to state custody due to his pending gun case. 

A BSO spokesperson told us they received no detainer on Wiley in their system, which is standard when requesting a transfer. 

For Simmons, it’s more than a mistake.

“Frustrating and scary because you see all these things on the news about people that look like me men and women who are getting killed because police showed up at the wrong house,” she said.  

Miami-Dade Police didn’t agree to an on-camera interview, but a spokesperson told us the department is looking into the case. 

As for Wiley, his public defender declined to comment. He’s pleaded not guilty to the gun charge he’s facing in Miami-Dade County.