Miami Gardens Delivery Driver Shoots and Kills Would-Be Robber Mid-Delivery, Surviving Suspect Charged With Felony Murder

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

MIAMI GARDENS, FL — A delivery driver fatally shot one of two men who tried to rob him while he was in the middle of dropping off food Thursday, and the surviving suspect is now facing a murder charge for the death of the man he allegedly showed up with.

Miami Gardens police identified the surviving suspect as Jabari Joshua Thomas, who was taken into custody and charged with felony murder and armed robbery, as reported by NBC 6, with neighbor accounts of the shooting as reported by CBS News Miami. The department’s identification of one of the suspects was also posted by ABC Miami.

Neighbors described hearing a burst of gunfire. “I heard like a few gunshots around four or five just bah bah bah,” Luis Ordonez told CBS News Miami. He later said he saw a lot of blood and believed the man on the ground had been hit three times.

Ordonez’s sister, Isabel Ordonez, gave the account of what the driver told the people who came outside. “He said he was actively trying to deliver food, and the guy came up to him trying to rob him, and his first instinct was to shoot,” she told NBC 6. She told CBS News Miami that the driver said he was actively being robbed and that he had a concealed carry permit.

Local reporting also says police detained the driver and let him go without an arrest or a charge, and that he went around asking residents in the area whether they had video that could show it was self-defense. I understand that instinct completely, and I would want that footage too. But collecting evidence is not the job of the person who just fired. Detectives canvass for cameras, and they are better at it than you will be with adrenaline still dumping. Say what you need to say, ask for a lawyer, and let the investigation do the rest.

More from USA Carry:

The felony murder charge against Thomas is the part worth slowing down on. Under a felony murder theory, a participant in a violent felony can be charged with a killing that happens during that felony even though someone else, in this case the intended victim, fired the fatal shot.

Delivery drivers are soft targets by the nature of the work. The route is public, the arrival is announced, the hands are occupied, and the driver may be somewhere he has never been before. Mindset is most of the defense there: reading the approach, keeping distance, and knowing before you ever step out of the car what you will do if two people move on you at once.