Crystal Junco, police say, ran into her ex-boyfriend outside Hialeah shop that sells batidos, or shakes. Moments later, she shot him to death. He was unarmed and appeared to be only holding his cell phone and a cup.
Her claim: he reached for his waistband and she thought he might be reaching for a gun, according to a police report.
Hialeah police didn’t buy Junco’s self-defense claim, arresting the 22-year-old woman early Tuesday on charges of second-degree murder and carrying a concealed weapon. She is now being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
The shooting will likely be yet another test of Florida’s long-controversial Stand Your Ground law, which eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat in the face of imminent dangers. Critics say 2005 law, and subsequent tweaks making it tougher to prosecute people who use deadly force, allows people to claim self-defense to get away with murder.
The law has repeatedly become a social and political flash point. South Florida has been replete with examples of people who claimed someone was reaching for a supposed weapon before gunning down the unarmed adversary.
The name of the victim was not available on Tuesday.
The Hialeah shooting happened Monday afternoon at 3:43 p.m. outside El Mejor Batido de Hialeah (The Best Shake in Hialeah), 360 W. 29th St. Junco did not flee, and was found at the scene when police arrived.
According to an arrest report, Junco ran into her ex-boyfriend and the two got into an argument. She claimed that during the argument, he made an “overt/furtive action toward his waistband, causing her to believe he was reaching for a firearm,” according to the report.
But video surveillance from a nearby business did not show him making any movements. Instead, the video show she fished a gun from inside her tan-colored purse and shot the man. She fired another round as the man —wearing a Lakers shirt and shorts — lay on the ground, cup at his side, mango-colored shake spilling on the floor.
An “independent witness” also saw the shooting. He said “the conversation did not appear to be aggressive in nature” and did not see the man “make any overt and/or furtive movements toward the victim at any time,” the report said.
It was unclear Tuesday if Junco had retained a defense attorney.
