A woman has been arrested and accused of attempted murder nearly a month after another woman was found shot on Interstate 195 in Miami Beach.
According to an arrest report for Latifah Mercedes Green, 33, she was one of a group of people who beat the victim, kidnapped her and held her in a car for over an hour before they dragged her onto the side of the Julia Tuttle Causeway and shot her three times.
Green was arrested Tuesday, and is facing attempted murder, kidnapping and home invasion charges.
According to an arrest report, it was shortly before 2 a.m. on Sept. 10 when Green and another woman allegedly arrived at a Miami home where the victim’s friend lived, asking for the victim.
The Hurricane season is on. Our meteorologists are ready. Sign up for the NBC 6 Weather newsletter to get the latest forecast in your inbox.
When she came to the door, they questioned her about money, drugs and a stolen gun, police said. After the victim denied everything, they left and came back with at least three other men, who barged into the home.
One of the men, who had been with the victim at a motel the day before, accused the victim of stealing this gun and asked where it was, before striking her “several times on the face with the firearms and his fist,” the arrest report said.
He then allegedly gave the gun to another man, who also beat the victim with it and punched her.
Local
Green hit her on the head with a liquor bottle, police said.
A witness said one of the men took out a gun to stop anyone from intervening.
“The victim was dragged out of the home by her hair” and forced into a Ford F-150 by the man who claimed she had his gun, the arrest report states.
Once in the car, the victim directed the suspects to her father’s house, claiming the gun was there.
When the group knocked on his door sometime after 2 a.m., he said he didn’t know anything about the gun and the suspect left.
The alleged attackers drove around with the victim until around 3:08 a.m., when they stopped the car and the men dragged her out, police said.
The man who wanted his gun back then allegedly shot her three times.
“After the victim was shot, she walked along the Julia Tuttle Causeway looking for help,” the arrest report describes. It wasn’t until 3:45 a.m. when Miami Beach police got a call from a passerby who said there was a body on the side of the road.
Officers found the woman, and took her with gunshot wounds and severe injuries to her face to Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder Trauma Center. She had to be intubated due to her injuries, the arrest report details.
Two days later, police had learned that the victim was kidnapped and showed up to the friend’s house, according to the report. Though he had cleaned the residence, officers found blood that belonged to the victim “on the ceiling, floor, walls, doors and furniture of the home.”
Later, the victim told detectives from the hospital that she knew all the offenders except for Green.
Green, meanwhile, denied being there when the victim was shot, police said.
Authorities said in the arrest report that surveillance video places the suspect vehicle at the scenes of the crimes, but did not name the other people allegedly involved.
Green appeared in court Thursday where Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer said other suspects, including the shooter, had been arrested. Glazer ordered Green held without bond.
