After months of investigation, Miami Gardens police have finally put cuffs on the man accused of fatally shooting an 18-year-old skateboarder last summer, officials announced. Rashad Bernard White, a 34-year-old from Miami Gardens, is facing a second-degree murder charge for the death of Jacob Alexander Zamora, which occurred on July 11, 2023, as reported by NBC Miami.
According to the arrest report, security footage shows Zamora on his skateboard, interacting with White's vehicle. This preceded a harrowing scene captured on video where Zamora, skateboard in hand, appears to try avoiding a confrontation by backing away, as stated by Local 10 News. Tragically, while using his skateboard as a makeshift shield, Zamora was shot in the torso and later succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital.
The case unraveled when another motorist, a witness to the grim encounter, provided Zamora's license plate number to the police. The vehicle, registered to White, was stopped, but driven by an acquaintance of White, who purportedly used the car on White's behalf while he pedaled away on the man's bicycle. Inside the vehicle, officers recovered a Glock 9mm with an extended magazine, resonant of the weapon seen in the footage.
Police efforts intensified when detectives were able to link White to the crime scene via cell phone data and, following a detailed inspection of the footage by the driver of White's car, they confirmed White as the man seen in the surveillance video. In a turn of events "White was taken into custody Thursday and refused to answer questions, authorities said," complementing this, the witness identified White's shoes as the ones featured in the video. This breakthrough led to his arrest almost one year after the incident. He now awaits his fate, held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to NBC Miami.
Miami's streets have witnessed too many such senseless acts of violence. Zamora's death stands as a sobering reminder of the precarious thread upon which life balances, especially for the youth in our communities. White faces grave charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm while committing a felony, marking an end, albeit a grim one, to nearly a year of investigative persistence by Miami Gardens police.
