Over five tense minutes caught on a video camera secretly installed in a Miami parking garage, a one-time member of a notorious Latin gang methodically preps and hides his handgun, then chats with his friend before pulling the weapon. His victims begs for his life, at times with the two men face to face, before the shooter once known as Psycho blasts away at close range.
Brutal video evidence aside, it might rank as a typical South Florida murder except that accused gunman, David Paneque, was supposed to have been deported nearly two years ago. But immigration authorities had to release him to the streets.
The reason: Paneque is Cuban. Even under renewed diplomatic relations established under former President Barack Obama, the island accepts back relatively few of its criminal citizens. Deportations to Cuba have risen under the aggressive policies pursued by President Donald Trump but still number only in the hundreds.
“Where are they going to send me? Cuba doesn’t want me,” Paneque joked during questioning by Miami-Dade police just before his latest arrest. “They don’t want me here. They don’t want me there.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office on Wednesday formally charged Paneque, 29, with the murder of Leandro Lopez. Police say the motive of the murder remains unclear.
Paneque, who remains jailed while awaiting trial, pleaded not guilty. His attorney declined to comment.
David Paneque, 29, is accused of murdering Leandro Lopez, 31, on March 24, 2019, at a West Miami-Dade strip mall.
The Miami murder case could add to a national immigration debate that has become highly politicized, with the White House elevating border walls and crackdowns on illegal immigration into a signature policy. Undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America implicated in high-profile crimes have become social media lightning rods for the president and many supporters. But Cuban Americans, generally seen as important political allies for Republicans, have enjoyed a special status owing to more lenient immigration policies for people escaping the Communist government.
Former Miami U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, who last year introduced an immigration reform bill that failed, said his proposal would have addressed dangerous felons like Paneque, allowing for their indefinite detention if they could not be deported.
“This illustrates a major flaw in our immigration laws. Even though this individual is an undocumented immigrant with a history of violent crime, by law, he had to be released,” said Curbelo, a Republican who lost his seat to Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
Paneque was 17 when he was first arrested for a violent crime.
According to police, he robbed a man at knifepoint outside a West Kendall restaurant in November 2007. During the “violent struggle,” the man was stabbed multiple times and airlifted to a hospital trauma center, according to an arrest report. Paneque, whose listed street name at the time was “Psycho,” was later caught trying to cash the man’s checks. At the time, he was also on probation on a conviction for... (video at link)
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