The South Florida freeway shootings are becoming a recurring topic in the daily news. This trend is reflected in the numbers: so far this year, there have been 10 firearms incidents in Miami-Dade and five in Broward County.
Lázaro Díaz Gongora, 31, was traveling with his girlfriend on I-95 when, according to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), they narrowly missed another vehicle Sunday night. The driver of that second car flashed his headlights at them and that’s when Diaz started shooting. Luckily no one was hurt by this.
When Diaz was arrested that same night, he said he was upset with the lights and just wanted to point his gun at them. That he didn’t know it was charged and went off when he shook it.
This was the fifth highway shooting in Broward County so far this year. And this Monday, another shooting case on I-95 in Miami-Dade left a car with 15 bullet holes and one person slightly injured. This would be the 10th case in this county.
If you find yourself involved in such a situation, authorities do not recommend tracking the suspect driver, but rather taking the vehicle’s data, including license plate or license plate, and calling 911 .
But when the victim doesn’t have all of this information, most of these cases don’t usually end in an arrest.
FHP’s Indiana Miranda explains the difficulties of acting without suspect vehicle data. “When you have a badge, you always find the suspect, but just with a description, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”
In order to have a license plate, a camera is needed to record it. In the Miami-Dade autopsies, there are 170 cameras and in the Broward ones, 384, but none are recording. Supposedly, because they are monitored in real time, but according to FHP, if they had all the tools, including effective cameras, they could solve these crimes.
“Absolutely, without a doubt, I cannot say: let me put six officers in this area in case something happens, these cases are unpredictable,” he explains.
Other states have upgraded their cameras to record and store video. So far, not the case in Florida.