‘I want to know what happened’
By Grethel Aguila
For more than a year, Erica Wilson-Price has been trying to navigate life without her son, who was killed with his best friend in a drive-by shooting outside a popular Miramar seafood restaurant.
“I just want to know what happened, who did this and why,” she said while sobbing. “I can’t live my life no more.”Family members and investigators gathered at the Miramar Police Department on Tuesday morning, releasing new information in the case and pleading with the public to come forward and help solve the March 17, 2022, double murder of Brent Hart, 25, and Dumas Cherizol-Amilcar, 27. Just after 8 p.m., Hart and Cherizol-Amilcar were gunned down at a shopping center at the 4000 block of Southwest 69th Avenue. The pair along with two other friends stood outside of Poohchello’s restaurant awaiting their orders when the gunfire started.
MORE DETAILS RELEASED IN SHOOTING
Miramar Police Detective Susan Smith told a news briefing Tuesday that a black or dark-colored sedan was caught on tape driving past the plaza, which housed several businesses, including the restaurant, a church, a medical center and a daycare. While the car never turned into the parking lot, someone fired “indiscriminately” from inside.
Investigators, Smith said, haven’t been able to narrow down a vehicle description from witness accounts. They also don’t know what kind of gun was used, though they uncovered dozens of shell casings at the scene, some of different calibers. It’s also unknown if Hart and Cherizol-Amilcar were targeted. Smith said. While no one else was struck by the bullets, the plaza was busy at the time, with restaurant patrons sitting in their cars awaiting their orders and parents picking up their children from the daycare.
“We don’t have a lot to go on,” Smith said. “That’s why we’re here today. We have two grieving families who deserve answers.”
TWO FAMILIES TORN APART SEEK ANSWERS
With tears, Wilson-Price reflected on her son, Brent Hart, who was affectionately called “Brenty.”Hart was an entrepreneur with a good sense of humor and a love of sports, she said. He studied on a football scholarship and always encouraged kids to use athletics as a way to secure their education and advance their futures.
Hart, aunt Charlotte Rose said, was robbed of the opportunity to meet and raise his 1-year-old daughter.
“You destroyed a whole family,” Wilson-Price said, wiping her tears with a tissue. “We are hurt. We are shattered.”Hart and Cherizol-Amilcar were childhood best friends, Wilson-Price said. The pair, raised in South Florida, met in middle school and quickly became inseparable.
“These kids were gunned down like animals, and there’s nothing left for us to do but come to the media,” Rose said. “We’re asking, we’re pleading, we’re begging the public to come forward.”
In a video interview, Cherizol-Amilcar’s three sisters, who live in Georgia, looked back on their favorite memories of their brother — and the pain of losing him. “I don’t think I’ve made a sound like that ever in my life,” Cindy Amilcar said about hearing the news of her brother’s death. “I’ve heard a lot of screaming as an ER doc, but I just screamed. I couldn’t do anything else.”Tahisha Amilcar fondly remembers how her brother was one of her biggest supporters, the person she turned to when facing a difficult situation. She smiled as she spoke about his laugh and how much he loved to crack jokes.
“He could just completely change your day,” Tahisha Amilcar said. “He was the baby of the group.”“Dumas was as big as a football player, but he was a goofy gentle giant,” Dulene Amilcar said.
Right before his death, Cherizol-Amilcar’s had become an electrician. He left behind two sons, 3 and 8.
“He didn’t deserve to die like that,” Cindy Amilcar said. “And he definitely didn’t deserve to not be able to see his sons grow up, to spend the rest of his life with his family, marry his beautiful girlfriend. He didn’t get to do any of that. It’s not right.”
Anyone with information about the killing of Hart and Cherizol-Amilcar should contact Detective Smith at 954-602-4238 (tel:954-602-4238) or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 (tel:954-493-8477).
