Girlfriend of alleged accomplice of gunman who shot MDPD officer says he was a kind man: "He was great person"
MIAMI SPRINGS – A woman identifying herself as the girlfriend of a Dania Beach armed robbery suspect killed by police Tuesday tells us about her boyfriend.
"He was great person. He was kind. He would help anyone. That's what we did with Horton, we were helping him," said the woman, who did not want to give her name.
Investigators tell us the woman's boyfriend was armed with an AK-47-style weapon when there was a confrontation as police served a search warrant at his room at a Miami Springs Hotel.
Investigators said he was linked to Jeremy Horton, the man suspected of also pulling off that robbery – later getting into a police pursuit in Liberty City, crashing a car and running from Miami-Dade police. That lead to a shootout that left Horton dead and Miami-Dade PD Detective Cesar Echaverry gravely wounded.
"He wasn't linked to that. He didn't know nothing about that," the girlfriend said.
"Did he know Jeremy Horton?" CBS4's Ted Scouten asked.
"He knew the guy," she said. "We had just met him like a week and a half ago. And we were helping him out. He said he had came from another state and he was in the streets."
She said the car that Horton crashed was actually a car her boyfriend borrowed from someone else, then let Horton use it.
"He lent it to this guy and this guy went to supposedly pick up something and come right back. But hours passed and hours passed and he never came back. We thought he stole the car. Little we knew he was in some rumble," she said.
We asked if she knew of any involvement in the Dania Beach robbery that set off this deadly chain of events.
"It happened around 3 in the afternoon Monday. Where was he around that time?" a reporter asked.
"He was already coming back home. I was in the pool and he said he was coming back home. I don't know. I don't, I wasn't keeping track of him," she said.
As for Horton's alleged involvement in the officer's shooting, she said it surprised her.
"Honestly, he was a guy that spoke about the universe and energy and chakras and God, so he seemed to be like a nice guy."
"When you hear he's connected with a police-involved shooting," a reporter mentioned.
She responded, "Then I'm like what is going on?'"
The girlfriend gave us a name and picture of the man who was killed at the hotel. CBS4 News has chosen not to use it until we have confirmation from police.
We spoke with Horton's brother Wednesday. He said the family is not yet ready to comment.
