2 homeless men victims of BB gun attack Wed, Jun. 11, 2008 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/story/566070.html By DAVID OVALLE AND ERIKA BERAS dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
Two homeless men were shot early Wednesday morning with a BB gun in downtown Miami — one as he slept and the other as he rode by on a bike, said police. The men have been identified as John Rains and Willie Thomas, ages unknown. The men have been treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital and released. The shootings happened at 1:15 a.m. at Third Avenue and West Flagler Street. Thomas was sleeping on a mattress underneath Interstate 95 when he felt a pain in his upper left thigh, glanced at his lower body and realized he had been shot, said Miami police spokesman Napier Velasquez. At the same time, another homeless man, Rains, was riding by on his bike and felt a pain in his side. He saw a silver pickup truck flash by. He pedaled his bike to the Miami police headquarters a few blocks away, walked inside and collapsed on the spot. Both men were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
The downtown area is a popular spot for homeless individuals to congregate, police said. No one else was hurt in the attack. Police have few clues to go on. “Nobody in the area heard any shots at all,” Velasquez said. South Florida has seen several attacks on homeless people in recent years. In Broward County, two young men are on trial in connection with a fatal baseball-bat attack on a homeless man and similar, though not fatal beatings of two other homeless men.