NEW YEAR'S EVE
Stray New Year's Eve bullets still haunt two families
Two South Floridians died from falling bullets likely fired into the air by New Year's revelers ringing in 2007. Both cases remain unsolved.
A year ago on New Year's Eve, bullets fell from the sky, killing two South Florida men.
Corey Baker, 35, the father of five, and Audley Ebanks, 69, whose widow and two daughters miss him so much they won't be in South Florida Monday night, died after they were hit by bullets randomly fired into the air.
Exactly one year later, police have few answers to give the victims' families.
And since celebratory gunfire is so common in South Florida, and since the shooters probably have no idea they hit anyone, the cases will probably remain unsolved.
''I was hoping for a miracle,'' said Shirley Harvard, a 27-year Miami police officer and Baker's aunt. ``But I wasn't expecting anything.''
In both cases, people with the victims at first thought they were suffering from medical problems -- until the wounds and the bullets were discovered. The families publicly pleaded for help. Detectives chased tips.
The two open and unsolved cases are a reminder of the dangers of firing guns into the air -- and the difficulty of finding those who fired the shots when someone gets hit.
''That's a family that will want answers, and in a typical homicide case, for the most part we've been pretty successful in providing them with some sort of understanding,'' said Detective Delrish Moss, a spokesman for Miami police. ``In these cases, you can't.''
Andrea Ebanks still pictures the last time she saw her father alive. It was midnight at a New Year's Eve party at a friend's house on East Acre Drive in Plantation. He was laughing, blowing on a party favor, its paper tail extended. She turned away for a moment. When she looked back, her father had collapsed.
Family and doctors thought Audley Ebanks died of a heart attack. Workers preparing his body for tissue donation discovered the fatal bullet, lodged in his heart.
'At first, it was, `He had a heart attack, OK, God took him,' '' said his younger sister, Dolsie Ebanks. ``And we found out it was some crazy monster who did it.''
Ebanks' widow and daughters won't ring in this new year in Florida. Because of the tragedy, all three are spending the holidays away from home.
''It just brings everything back, clear as day, like the day it happened,'' Andrea Ebanks said. ``You just wonder -- you're always wondering -- what happened that night.''
Just a few hour earlier, Miami police Officer Shirley Harvard couldn't believe the phone call she received saying her nephew, Corey Baker, was struck by a stray bullet at 9:30 p.m. on the last day of the old year while hanging out outside a friend's home at 915 NW 60th St.
The bullet went through the top of Baker's head.
Harvard had seen him just hours before, and she told him to stay inside when the shooting started.
Baker told her he was going to be on South Beach at midnight. There wouldn't be shooting there, he said. Baker was the father of five children.
''It's almost a year,'' Harvard said. ``And not a day goes by it doesn't come across my mind.''
But as a police officer, Harvard understands the difficulties investigators face. In other homicides, there is an obvious crime scene and usually a connection between the killer and the victim, Moss said.
In falling-bullet cases, the fatal shot can come from miles away. Multiple guns are often fired if it's a holiday. And killers have no knowledge of their victim or that they have killed.
''It makes it almost impossible to solve these types of cases,'' Moss said.
Several falling bullet injuries happen every year in Miami, Moss said, although deaths are relatively rare.
Andrea Ebanks put her energy into the community, hoping to combat the random violence that killed her father. She became involved with the community civic association her father once supported and supports gun buyback programs, which give money to people for turning in firearms.
And she supports tighter gun control, hoping it will reduce the type of violence that claimed her father.
''Never take for granted that it's not going to be your loved one, your friend, your teacher or someone in your life,'' she said, ``because you just never know.''
Stray New Year's Eve bullets still haunt two families
Two South Floridians died from falling bullets likely fired into the air by New Year's revelers ringing in 2007. Both cases remain unsolved.
A year ago on New Year's Eve, bullets fell from the sky, killing two South Florida men.
Corey Baker, 35, the father of five, and Audley Ebanks, 69, whose widow and two daughters miss him so much they won't be in South Florida Monday night, died after they were hit by bullets randomly fired into the air.
Exactly one year later, police have few answers to give the victims' families.
And since celebratory gunfire is so common in South Florida, and since the shooters probably have no idea they hit anyone, the cases will probably remain unsolved.
''I was hoping for a miracle,'' said Shirley Harvard, a 27-year Miami police officer and Baker's aunt. ``But I wasn't expecting anything.''
In both cases, people with the victims at first thought they were suffering from medical problems -- until the wounds and the bullets were discovered. The families publicly pleaded for help. Detectives chased tips.
The two open and unsolved cases are a reminder of the dangers of firing guns into the air -- and the difficulty of finding those who fired the shots when someone gets hit.
''That's a family that will want answers, and in a typical homicide case, for the most part we've been pretty successful in providing them with some sort of understanding,'' said Detective Delrish Moss, a spokesman for Miami police. ``In these cases, you can't.''
Andrea Ebanks still pictures the last time she saw her father alive. It was midnight at a New Year's Eve party at a friend's house on East Acre Drive in Plantation. He was laughing, blowing on a party favor, its paper tail extended. She turned away for a moment. When she looked back, her father had collapsed.
Family and doctors thought Audley Ebanks died of a heart attack. Workers preparing his body for tissue donation discovered the fatal bullet, lodged in his heart.
'At first, it was, `He had a heart attack, OK, God took him,' '' said his younger sister, Dolsie Ebanks. ``And we found out it was some crazy monster who did it.''
Ebanks' widow and daughters won't ring in this new year in Florida. Because of the tragedy, all three are spending the holidays away from home.
''It just brings everything back, clear as day, like the day it happened,'' Andrea Ebanks said. ``You just wonder -- you're always wondering -- what happened that night.''
Just a few hour earlier, Miami police Officer Shirley Harvard couldn't believe the phone call she received saying her nephew, Corey Baker, was struck by a stray bullet at 9:30 p.m. on the last day of the old year while hanging out outside a friend's home at 915 NW 60th St.
The bullet went through the top of Baker's head.
Harvard had seen him just hours before, and she told him to stay inside when the shooting started.
Baker told her he was going to be on South Beach at midnight. There wouldn't be shooting there, he said. Baker was the father of five children.
''It's almost a year,'' Harvard said. ``And not a day goes by it doesn't come across my mind.''
But as a police officer, Harvard understands the difficulties investigators face. In other homicides, there is an obvious crime scene and usually a connection between the killer and the victim, Moss said.
In falling-bullet cases, the fatal shot can come from miles away. Multiple guns are often fired if it's a holiday. And killers have no knowledge of their victim or that they have killed.
''It makes it almost impossible to solve these types of cases,'' Moss said.
Several falling bullet injuries happen every year in Miami, Moss said, although deaths are relatively rare.
Andrea Ebanks put her energy into the community, hoping to combat the random violence that killed her father. She became involved with the community civic association her father once supported and supports gun buyback programs, which give money to people for turning in firearms.
And she supports tighter gun control, hoping it will reduce the type of violence that claimed her father.
''Never take for granted that it's not going to be your loved one, your friend, your teacher or someone in your life,'' she said, ``because you just never know.''
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