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Police Investigate Alleged Shooting At Flea Market USA
Miami-Dade police are investigating an incident in which a woman was videotaped allegedly shooting a man inside a parked car, while her young son is inside the vehicle.
The cell phone video posted on Instagram Thursday shows a woman with green hair driving to Flea Market USA on NW 79th Street purportedly to retrieve her son who is, she says, with his father and another woman.
The profanity-laced video shows the woman getting out of her car and confronting a man at gunpoint who is in another car.
A woman apparently jumped from the other car in fear.
After delivering a curse-filled tirade at the man behind the wheel of the car the woman fires what appears to be a round from a semi-automatic pistol and, moments later, removes a young boy from the backseat of the car, puts him in her car, gets in and takes off.
Her friend shooting with the cell phone tells her to hurry.
There is serious question as to whether the video is real or a hoax. Miami-Dade Police tell CBS4 News they are investigating it as a probable fake.
But even if it is all staged and doctored, and a real gun was not used, a crime may still come into play because a child was involved.
Friday afternoon, a woman claiming to be the woman with green hair in the video, but wearing a red wig this time, claimed in an Instagram post that police were threatening her with taking her children away if she didn’t prove the man she “shot” at was alive. She said it was all a fake.
Det. Chris Thomas, a Miami-Dade Police spokesman, declined to comment on the latest post.
Police continue to investigate.
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Developer Grady Pridgen buys Oldsmar Flea Market for $11.35 million
Developer Grady Pridgen has bought the Oldsmar Flea Market for $11.35 million and says he has plans to turn it into a "world-class gathering space" for the Tampa Bay area.
"It’s right in the center of 3 million people, 75,000 drive by it every day and it has 300,000 square feet of space and 2,000 parking spaces that are under-utilized," Pridgen said Monday. "We’re going to have dining experiences, activities, events, concerts — just make it fun."
To that end, Pridgen said he has enlisted the team that revamped Disney Springs, the shopping, dining and entertainment complex of Disney World.
"They did a fantastic job of creating a sense of place,’’ he said, "and while we won’t be able to transform (Oldsmar) into Disney Springs, we will use the skills they did in making it a world-class flea market and gathering space."
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City revokes flea market’s business license
South Eufaula Flea Market in Alabama owners Lamar and Teresa Morris appeared before the city council Monday to once again defend their business and ask the council not to revoke their business license.
Their efforts proved unfruitful, however, as the council voted 3-1 to revoke the license because they owners had failed to keep the property looking clean and orderly as they had previously promised to do.
In 2017, the business owners appeared before the council facing the same situation, possible revocation of their business license. Complaints about the business appearing unkempt and unsafe were only part of the problem. City staff discovered upon closer inspection that Morris had failed to pay sales taxes to the city for the entire 12 years he was in business. Ultimately, the council agreed to let Morris keep the business license under condition that a fence be erected on the property and that items from his business be kept behind the fence.
Monday, City Attorney Courtney Potthoff asked city staff members Teri Bush and Eufaula Police Captain Carl Wallace to present photos and information from a visit they made to the business in August at the request of Mayor Jack Tibbs. The photos show several trash bags full of clothing, old televisions and appliances, sofas and other miscellaneous used items sitting in front of the building near the roadside. They also show a broken toilet and other items sitting along the side of the business outside of the fence and other litter and refuse. One photo shows a utility trailer loaded with more items sitting out front of the building near the public roadway.
Cpt. Wallace said the area appeared unsafe, especially the closeness of the trailer to the turning lane.
“It was extremely close to the road,” he said.
Bush said many of the items she saw out in front of the building “appeared to have been there for some time.”
Morris, however, argued that the photos were taken on a day that he was unloading merchandise into his store. He said they were in the process of going through all of the items and that it would have been cleaned up by the next day. He also said that some of the items pictured were dumped at his business by people moving out of the nearby trailer park. Those items, he said, were eventually hauled to the landfill.
“Go look at it now, it’s clean,” he said.
Councilwoman Barbara Flurry, however, disagreed.
“It will be (unsightly) again in a couple days,” she said. “I have seen it like this on many, many, many days. I pass it all the time. It stays like this ya’ll.”
The discussion was held during a public hearing. Resident Louise Howard urged the council to shut the business down saying, “It’s a junk heap. I drive by there every day. People drive by it every day. It’s an eyesore if we are wanting to attract people to move into our community.”
Morris told the council, “That’s not junk, that’s my living. And it’s the only means I have of paying back the taxes I owe you.”
When questioned by Councilman Lucious Cobbs, Morris said the flea market was his only livelihood.
Barbara Flurry moved to have the license revoked. After some consideration, Councilwoman Linda Grice seconded the motion. The motion passed with Flurry, Grice, and Council President Johnny Knight voting in favor. Councilman Tony Robertson voted against the motion, and Councilman Cobbs abstained.