Willy Suarez Maceo saw his charges upgraded after surveillance footage was released.
A suspected serial killer who works as a real estate agent in Miami has been charged with the murders of two homeless men after newly released surveillance footage allegedly showed him in action, authorities said.
Willy Suarez Maceo, 25, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. His charges were upgraded from the original charges of attempted murder filed in December.
“These are some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” Miami-Date State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. “Having an unknown killer striking out at random victims is like no other type of crime to solve.”
The haunting surveillance footage released Friday shows a black Dodge Charger drive next to a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk before a gun is fired from the driver’s side window, sending the man’s body into spasms.
The homeless man was later identified as 56-year-old Jerome Antonio Price, and he was killed during the encounter that December evening.
Authorities said the Dodge Charger that appears in the footage is Maceo’s, and he is the driver who open fired that night, according to a December statement.
Hours earlier, Maceo had allegedly shot another homeless man in the head. That man miraculously survived but was in “extreme critical condition” following the shooting, authorities said.
“Officers quickly connected the two shootings not only because the short span of time between the two shootings but also because both victims were homeless,” Miami-Date PD Interim Chief Manuel Morales said in December.
When Maceo was arrested on Christmas Eve, officers linked him to the fatal October stabbing of 59-year-old Manuel Perez, who was “horrifically murdered,” Morales said. Perez was also homeless.
“It’s a series of chance-like, detached killings that can defy a community’s perception of danger and safety,” Rundle said.
Maceo has been in jail on no bond since his December arrest, and was denied bond again in the most recent charges.
Maceo has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
His court-appointed lawyer said during his December hearing that “Maceo is never seen carrying out the shooting.”
