Miami police make arrest after man shot in front of his granddaughter

MIAMI – Miami police said Friday they have arrested a burglar who shot and killed a 62-year-old man in front of his granddaughter the previous day. The burglar, police said, was a distant relative of the victim.

The shooting occurred around 8:30 a.m. Thursday in the 700 block of Southwest Fifth Street in the Little Havana neighborhood.

Police said 38-year-old Carlos Manuel Rosales, who lives nearby, “completely covered himself” to conceal his identity and broke into an apartment where the victim’s 11-year-old granddaughter was alone.

Rosales is the girl’s step-uncle and is married to the girl’s mother’s sister, police said.

According to police, the girl called her mother, who then called the girl’s grandfather, Luciano Matute, who rushed to confront the suspect.

According to police, Rosales shot Matute, ran away, got into a white Toyota Tundra and sped away in the truck.

Police said they identified the truck’s license plate shortly after 3:45 p.m. that same day and located it at the corner of Southwest Seventh Avenue and Fourth Street.

Authorities said they stopped Rosales less than 10 minutes later in the 1100 block of Southwest Seventh Street and took him into custody.

According to police, further investigation revealed that Rosales had also sexually assaulted a girl since she was 8 years old. The victim told police she also saw Rosales sexually assault a 9-year-old girl, a police report states. Local 10 News is withholding the relationship between Rosales and the victims to protect their identities.

Rosales, a Honduran citizen, was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges of first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child or lewd and lascivious exposure with a child, according to prison records.

His bail was listed as “to be determined” in those documents.