A 70-day search for a Miami‑Dade shooting suspect ended Tuesday in Norcross, Georgia, when U.S. Marshals closed in on 37-year-old Nathan Cooper and took him into custody. Cooper is now awaiting extradition to Miami‑Dade County on a first-degree attempted murder charge tied to a March shooting in West Little River that left a county water-and-sewer worker hospitalized.
Members of the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Cooper in Norcross on May 26, according to Local 10. The Miami‑Dade Sheriff's Office reports that Cooper fled the area after the March incident and had been wanted on an active warrant. Officials say he will be sent back to Florida to face a charge of first-degree attempted murder with a deadly weapon.
Victim and alleged motive
Investigators say the March shooting grew out of a dispute between two families over their children. The victim, 33-year-old Miami‑Dade Water and Sewer employee Shawn Webster, was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center for treatment. "My grandchildren, they witnessed their father being shot," Webster’s mother told Local 10. Doorbell camera video obtained by investigators reportedly shows children running as the gunfire erupts.
How authorities tracked him
Miami‑Dade detectives teamed up with federal marshals and regional fugitive squads to track Cooper across state lines, a setup the county's warrants unit describes as standard for high-priority cases. The Miami‑Dade Warrants Bureau says those squads coordinate arrests and extraditions with the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Marshals Service documents numerous similar captures credited to its Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force. Officials say that multijurisdictional reach is what ultimately led them to Cooper in Georgia.
Criminal history and legal status
State corrections records show Cooper was sentenced in 2023 to five years in prison for a 2016 aggravated battery and was released from state custody in April 2024, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. Deputies have said he was on federal supervised release after that earlier sentence and that a warrant was issued in March as detectives investigated the shooting. He now faces the attempted-murder charge in Miami‑Dade and will be returned to the county for prosecution once extradition is completed.
Anyone with information about the March shooting is asked to contact Miami‑Dade Crime Stoppers at 305‑471‑TIPS. Sheriff Rosie Cordero‑Stutz has praised deputies and task-force partners for the coordinated effort that ended with Cooper’s arrest.
