Devastated loved ones are reeling days after, police said, a prominent community activist and restaurant owner was fatally gunned down in front of his business in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.
Surveillance video captured the moments after Dwight Wells came under fire along the 5000 block of Northwest 17th Avenue, just before 9:20 p.m. on Friday.
According to City of Miami Police, a masked man approached Wells during a game of dominoes and opened fire, striking the 40-year-old multiple times before he fled on foot.
The security footage shows people running for cover in the wake of the gunfire.
Paramedics transported Wells to Ryder Trauma Center, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Friday night’s killing left a community in mourning and triggered a search for the gunman responsible.
On Sunday, his mother, Mary Brown, spoke with 7News outside of her son’s restaurant.
“I was so proud of him. He was a son that a mother needed,” she said.
Brown said Wells may be gone, but his legacy is staggering.
“The kindness he shared — to the elderly people, to the little children, to the adults, to the adolescents, the way he fed the homeless. My son was a God child,” she said.
“He really helped a lot of kids, changed their lives as far as, you know, turning their lives around in the community,” said Wells’ sister, Tina Lafrance.
Family members said business owner was just one of his contributions to a community for which he cared deeply.
“He was a community activist; he was all about bikes up and guns down,” said Lafrance.
Wells was widely known for leading “Bikes up, Guns Down,” a community initiative that, family members said, was aimed at helping young people pedal toward peace in an effort to end gun violence.
“We started up with the kids on their bikes, you know, doing tricks, and I’d seen that bikes was always a part of our culture,” Wells told 7News in a 2017 interview. “That’s what we’re all about.”
7Nwews captured moments when Wells was seen comforting families who had lost loved ones to gun vioilence over the years.
“It’s blood being shed on this land!” he said suring a community gathering.
Brown pointed out the irony of the cause tho which, she said, her son dedicated his life was the same one that ended it.
“They used what he believed in against him,” she said, “but it’s well, it’s all right. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
Wells’ family has set up a GoFundMe page to held with expenses. If you would like to make a donation, click here.
If you have any information on this shooting or the subject’s whereabouts, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.