One person was rushed to the hospital Friday after a reported shooting inside a North Miami jewelry store, with officers converging on the business just after 11:10 a.m. and the patient's condition still unclear hours later. The incident unfolded at a shopping plaza along the 16100 block of Biscayne Boulevard, home to Gavco Jewelers, where police say they responded to reports of a person being shot.
According to WSVN, North Miami police officers responded to the shopping center after getting word that someone had been shot at the business. Paramedics transported the patient to an area hospital, though the station reported the person's condition as unknown. Rescue crews were seen moving the patient out of the plaza as officers worked to secure the scene.
Investigators Still Piecing Together What Happened
North Miami police officers were investigating what led up to the incident, per the station's report, but no details on a suspect, a weapon, or a motive had been released. It also remains unclear whether anything was taken from the store or whether anyone has been detained in connection with the shooting. 7SkyForce hovered above the scene just after noon Friday as police worked the plaza along Biscayne Boulevard.
Jewelry stores and the people who run them have found themselves targeted elsewhere in Miami-Dade in recent months, though nothing in the record ties those cases to Friday's incident at Gavco Jewelers. Earlier this month, a jeweler in northwest Miami-Dade said he was the victim of a violent home invasion, telling NBC 6 that several armed men broke into his house, beat him, and made off with merchandise he estimated at about $900,000. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue transported him to a hospital in stable condition, the station reported.
A Pattern Cuban Jewelers Say Has Intensified
That home invasion victim was identified by CiberCuba as Alain Guevara Hernández, who said five armed men assaulted him at his home and took roughly 60 watches and 50 to 70 chains he valued at around $900,000. As of the Wednesday after that incident, no arrests had been reported, and the Sheriff's Office Robbery Unit was leading the investigation, according to CiberCuba.
The outlet also reported that suspects posing as customers to scout a location before a robbery had been seen in other heists targeting Cuban jewelers in Miami-Dade, describing it as a pattern that has intensified in recent years. There is nothing in the available reporting connecting that pattern, or the home invasion case, to Friday's shooting at Gavco Jewelers. For now, North Miami police are still working to determine exactly what happened inside the Biscayne Boulevard plaza, and the condition of the person hospitalized remains unknown.
