Arrest made in the fatal shooting of well-known Miami-Dade high school football coach
Miami-Dade County police have arrested the man who they said killed a well-known Miami high school football coach last week.
Lance Brian Rolle, 39, shot Keon Bernard Smith several times with a .40 caliber handgun June 3 outside of an apartment building at 2852 NW 132nd Street in Opa-Locka, according to his arrest warrant.
Smith, 49, was the quarterback coach for Miami Norland Senior High School’s football team, the Miami-Dade County school district confirmed.
The violence started with a home invasion hours earlier at the apartment, which belongs to Smith’s girlfriend, whom he was visiting, according to the June 7 warrant. Rolle arrived there around 11 p.m. Sunday in a blue Nissan Rogue SUV.
He stood outside the bedroom window arguing with Smith, who was lying in his girlfriend’s bed, according Miami-Dade police Detective Freddy Gonzalez’s report.
Rolle then forced his way through the window and ordered Smith at gunpoint to leave the apartment, according to the report.
The woman tried calling 911, but police say Rolle snatched her cell phone and ran away. After using her son’s phone to call Opa-Locka police to report the home invasion, she called her own, Gonzalez wrote. Rolle answered the call and threatened to come back and kill Smith, according to the report.
At 12:40 a.m. June 3, Rolle returned to the apartment building, this time in a blue Kia Niro SUV, according to police. Going by security camera footage, Gonzalez said he saw Smith standing outside the building. Rolle appears from the second-story staircase and starts shooting Smith, killing him, Gonzalez said.
Rolle is being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on no bond as of Wednesday night. His attorney, Anthony Moser, with the Princilis Law Firm in Miami, said Rolle intends to plead not guilty.
“Mr. Rolle did what most people would not have done by turning himself in to authorities,” Moser said in a statement texted to the Miami Herald. “This should not be viewed nor taken as an admission to guilt. He learned that he was a suspect in this case. He retained our firm for representation. Then he followed the law as we advised him to.”
Over the course of the investigation, detectives learned Rolle lived with his girlfriend in Margate, according to the report. There, they found both the Nissan and Kia parked outside, Gonzalez wrote.
On June 5, detectives obtained a search warrant and found a Glock .40 caliber pistol hidden beneath soil in a flower pot in the backyard, Gonzalez stated. After testing the gun, investigators were able to match it to the shell casings found at the crime scene, according to Gonzalez’s report.
Gonzalez also stated that AT&T cellular data showed the phone Rolle had been using. It’s is a device issued to his girlfriend by her employer — Broward County Public Schools.
Moser, Rolle’s attorney, maintains, his client “is presumed innocent until proven guilty. We understand that this is a tragic event. We send our condolences to the Smith family. However, Mr. Rolle will plead Not Guilty. He’s maintaining his innocence and he will have his day in court.”
