A Miami man who once faced charges in the fatal shooting of a 10-year-old boy more than a decade ago has been arrested in connection with a 2022 double murder, records showed.
Ernest Rowell, 28, was arrested Wednesday on two counts of first-degree murder in the Nov. 6, 2022 double shooting, an arrest warrant said.
Officers had responded to a Shot Spotter alert in the 700 block of Northwest 5th Avenue and found two men laying on a sidewalk unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds.
The victims, 28-year-old Deandre Mckeithen and 37-year-old Rayford Shipman III, were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center where they died from their injuries.
Investigators later recovered 28 spent bullet casings from the scene.
According to the warrant, surveillance video showed a Mercedes-Benz sedan passing the victims, who were standing on the corner of Northwest 5th Avenue and Northwest 8th Street.
The video showed the Mercedes come to a stop and two gunmen exited with assault rifles before they opened fire on the victims, the warrant said.
The gunmen then ran back to the vehicle which was driven by a third person and flee, the warrant said.
Using surveillance video and toll plate records, detectives found the vehicle’s owner, who said he rents the vehicle and advertises it on Instagram.
The owner said Rowell was a frequent client and had rented the vehicle on Oct. 27, 2022 and returned it on Nov. 7, 2022, the warrant said.
Investigators also discovered that Rowell’s phone was in the proximity of the shooting scene at the time of the double murder, the warrant said.
During a search of Rowell’s phone, investigators found a photo taken on Nov. 7, 2022 of Rowell wearing a gray hoodie and black ski mask which matched the description of the gunmen in the surveillance footage of the shooting, the warrant said.
The warrant for Rowell was issued last month and on Wednesday, he was arrested during a traffic stop involving Miami Police’s Gang Intelligence Unit and the FBI Violent Gang Task Force, records showed.
After he was booked into jail, Rowell appeared before a judge on Thursday who ordered him held without bond.
Rowell was previously charged in the March 2015 drive-by shooting that killed 10-year-old Marlon Eason, who was gunned down in front of his home in Overtown as he was playing basketball.
According to an arrest affidavit, Eason’s mother encountered Rowell and another teen, who admitted to killing her son. The teens said they were shooting at a car that had gang rivals inside, the affidavit said.
Rowell was 17 at the time of the shooting and court records showed the charges against him were dropped in March 2022, just months before the fatal double shooting.
