Suspect Charged In Memorial Day Weekend Banquet Hall Mass Shooting

Miami FL

08 October, 2021

7:29 AM

Description

A Miami Times Staff Report Oct 7, 2021 Twenty-year-old Warneric Buckner is being held without bond after a Thursday court appearance in connection to the El Mula Banquet Hall shooting. Miami-Dade police believe the suspect was one of three shooters behind the Memorial Day Weekend mass shooting that left three people dead and more than 20 injured. Among the deceased were 26-year-old Desmond Owens and Clayton Dillard III, who both died on the scene, and 32-year-old Shankquia Lechelle Peterson. The victims were there for local rapper ABMG Spitta's album release party. Buckner was willing to speak to detectives Wednesday when an arrest warrant brought him in for booking. He admitted to police that he was a passenger in the front seat of the stolen Nissan Pathfinder used as the get-away car after a barrage of bullets was released into a crowd in front of the Hialeah hall. The arrest report says Buckner was armed with a large assault rifle he used to fire into the crowd, though he could not recount how many rounds he let off. He confessed to meeting with people involved in the shooting before the group headed towards the banquet hall that fatal Sunday morning. Before the suspect was arrested, MDPD said the attack was connected to a rivalry between two groups. Buckner confirmed that the hit was intended for one target, who police have not yet released the identity of. Surveillance footage released by the police department days after the shooting showed three armed men exiting a vehicle and firing off their weapons before running back into the car within three seconds. A group of armed individuals among the party attendees returned fire toward the initial shooters, according to police officials. Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers, at the time, offered a reward of up to $30,000 while Marcus Lemonis, a Miami businessman offered a generous $100,000 to anyone who provided tips leading to an arrest. Now one of those three men is facing charges. Buckner is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and 20 counts of attempted murder. The state may be seeking the death penalty, according to the presiding judge on his bond case. Though he was the only shooter arrested for the crime, police have also arrested another suspect who allegedly acted as the lookout for the shooters. Last month, police detained 22-year-old Davonta Barnes. Barnes confessed to his role in informing the group if the target was present at the location before the shooting occurred. A judge ordered that Buckner not contact, directly or indirectly, the survivors of the crime. The high-profile shooting, along with a string of other violent crimes during the May holiday weekend, resulted in a county-wide Peace and Prosperity gun violence plan and MDPD's Operation Summer Heat. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.