The murder mystery of international college student Sciharia Aila Sai Kiran has prompted his friends to make a public plea for help.
"He don't have any enemies like this here. He don't have any other relations here, he only knows me and my friends," Hari Katroth said.
Aila, from India, and in Miami just one month, was shot and killed early Sunday morning outside his apartment in Little Havana near Southwest 6th Street and 10th Avenue.
The 22-year-old was eating with his two friends, then stepped outside to take a phone call.
"Within a few minutes it happened. 11, 11:30 we had our dinner, we were speaking, we were enjoying, we were laughing with him, he went down the hall and it happened in a minute," friend Krishna Katukam said.
Police think a man on foot approached Aila. The friend Aila was talking with on the phone told police he heard somebody demand the cellphone from Aila.
The friend also heard the phone drop to the floor.
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"This victim was completely out there, minding his own business, going about his business and it appears that it could have been robbery related," Miami Police spokesman Sgt. Altarr Williams said.
Aila's friends said they are in contact with his relatives in India and are helping ship his body back home. They also said murders are rare in their community and they're hoping police find the person who committed this one.
A reward of up to $3,000 is being offered for information in the case. Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
