Father, two sons shot to death in North Miami after dispute with neighbor, police say
A dispute between neighbors turned fatal when a man shot and killed a man and his two adult sons Monday afternoon near downtown North Miami, authorities said.
Pierce Nelson Hoempler, 33, was charged with three counts of second-degree murder, North Miami Police Maj. Kessler Brooks told the Miami Herald. He was booked Tuesday morning into Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he remained as of 2:30 p.m. after a judge ordered him held without bond.
“The department is confident that we have all parties involved in police custody,” North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme said in a statement Monday night.
Police have not elaborated on what led to the shooting, but a woman who said she’s a family member of the men killed told CBS News Miami that it was over “a little fight” with a neighbor.
Around 4:15 p.m., Hoempler had a spat with another man outside an apartment complex at 12240 NE 5th Ave. in North Miami, officers said in his arrest report. Then both men fell before Hoempler got on top of the man.
When the man’s two sons came to help him, police said Hoempler took a semi-automatic pistol from his waistband — fatally shooting all three.
Brooks said that when officers arrived, they found three men, ranging from 30 to 50 years old, with gunshot wounds.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue paramedics pronounced two of the men dead at the scene. The third was flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he subsequently died, Brooks added.