Men Charged In Fatal Birthday Party Shooting
Mother, Son Die In Barrage Of Bullets
POSTED: 2:16 pm EST November 9, 2006
UPDATED: 4:17 pm EST November 9, 2006
MIAMI -- Police have made four arrests in the shooting deaths of a mother and her 7-year-old son who were killed during the boy's birthday party.
Wednesday, police, special agents and U.S. marshals searched a home at 1515 N.W. Third St. in Fort Lauderdale, where they allegedly recovered several weapons. As a result of that search, police arrested Rayon Mathew Samuels, Sean Condell, Damian Lewis and Rashid Lee in connection with the Oct. 14 shooting.
Carla Queeley, 34, and her son, Chaquone Watson, died from several gunshot wounds in a north Miami-Dade County neighborhood.
Tony Chester, 4, Shantaria Kearse, 7, and sisters Ann Maynard, 31, and Shantara Maynard, 24, were critically injured in the shooting, but have since been released from the hospital.
Relatives said that they suspected that the motive for the shooting was robbery.
"This was a brutal act, " said Curtis Maynard, who said he was Queeley's cousin. "They were trying to rob the house. Maybe they didn't expect that there was a birthday party."
Queeley, who was a nurse, was finishing up decorating the house for the birthday party when the armed men forced their way into the back of the home on Northeast Ninth Place, police said.
Police said that Queely and her son were held hostage briefly while she was forced to call her cousins, who own the home, to tell them to return to the house. Shortly after other family members arrived, the men started shooting, police said.
Police said that there is still one suspect in the shooting who remains on the run.
http://www.local10.com/news/10283024/detail.html