MIAMI — The man who fatally shot his wife at a Jewish community center pool in Northweast Miami-Dade on Sunday had stabbed the woman one day before, according to an arrest report released Monday.
Carl Monty Watts Jr., 45, has now been jailed and is awaiting a charge of second-degree murder with a weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The slain woman, Shandell Harris, had reported the Saturday stabbing to Miami police. Her injuries were not serious enough for her to be admitted to the hospital, law enforcement sources told The Miami Herald.
It was not immediately clear why officers had not arrested Watts.
By Sunday afternoon, Harris was with her daughter at swim lessons at at the pool at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center when Watts approached. According to an arrest report from Miami-Dade County Police, he began “offering the victim money to drop the charges against him.” She refused and asked him to leave.
Watts then took out a firearm and began shooting her in front of horrified children and parents. When she collapsed, Watts “stood over the victim and continued to shoot her until he ran out of live cartridges,” the report said.
Private security guards soon captured Watts. Police said a gun in an open field adjacent to this JCC, 18900 NE 25th Ave.
