Local
North Miami apartment shootout leads to arrest in kidnapping, slaying investigation
Devorise Carl Johnson, 21, was arrested after investigators linked him to an Oct. 3 abduction and shootout in North Miami that ended with the victim’s killing in southwest Miami-Dade. Authorities say the assailants posed as police and later set fire to the vehicle used in the crime.
A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a North Miami apartment shootout, the abduction of a resident and the resident’s killing in southwest Miami-Dade, authorities said.
Devorise Carl Johnson faces charges including first-degree murder and kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated battery, shooting a deadly missile, armed burglary, armed robbery and falsely impersonating an officer, according to Miami-Dade jail records. He was released from the hospital Wednesday and taken into custody, authorities said. Attorney information was not available.
According to an arrest report and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Johnson and four other men arrived at the Aliro Apartments, 14040 Biscayne Blvd., on the night of Oct. 3 and waited for 22-year-old Eddrick Bethune to leave. The group drove up in a Toyota Camry displaying flashing red and blue lights, the report said. Two men wearing shirts marked “Police” handcuffed Bethune, took his keys and threw his phone across the parking lot.
Johnson and two others then entered Bethune’s apartment with his keys, where they encountered another person armed with an AK-47-style weapon. That person and Johnson exchanged gunfire, authorities said. Johnson was hit multiple times, and the men escaped by jumping from a third-story bedroom window, according to the report. A neighbor’s cellphone video captured men leaping from the building.
Bethune was forced into the Camry as the group fled. The vehicle later reached the area of Southwest 216th Street and Southwest 189th Avenue, where Bethune was shot multiple times, investigators said. A sheriff’s captain found his body on the roadside at about 7:25 a.m. Oct. 4. Investigators later found the Camry near Southwest 248th Street and 157th Avenue, burned in what authorities said was an intentional fire.
Authorities have not said whether any of the other suspects have been identified or arrested. The investigation remains ongoing.