Authorities on Friday will announce murder charges against real estate agent Willy Maceo in the killing of two homeless men in Miami.
Police had previously identified Maceo, 25, as the suspect in the Dec. 21 killing of Jerome Antonio Price, 56, who was shot to death as he slept on the sidewalk in Wynwood, and the Oct. 16 stabbing death of Manuel Perez, 59, in downtown Miami.
Maceo, who police dubbed a “suspected serial killer’ targeting homeless men in Miami, was already being held in jail on an attempted murder charge, the non-fatal shooting of a homeless man, also on Dec. 21.
Miami police homicide detectives had been working to build murder cases against Maceo, of Kendall, who was first arrested in late December when surveillance video showed his Dodge Charger was linked in the Wynwood shootings. When detectives tracked down Maceo in the car, they found the Glock 9mm handgun — and the bullets matched casings found at both shooting scenes, Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales said in December.
Investigators then linked Maceo to the murder of a homeless man, Manuel Perez, 59, on Oct. 16 at 27 SE First St. Surveillance footage of the murder suspect, shared previously with the public, shows a man who looks exactly like Maceo.
Since then, investigators have further uncovered video evidence and cellphone records that help trace Maceo’s movements during the nights of the killings.
The motive behind the killings remain a mystery. Maceo had no criminal history, but did have a history of mental illness.
The Miami Herald last month reported that Maceo had been sent to a hospital for a mental-health evaluation after he was acting erratically at his parents’ home in Kendall. Police officers seized his Glock, but later returned it to him after the department’s legal bureau decided he was not enough of a risk for court intervention.
Prosecutors and police will announce the charges at a news conference Friday afternoon at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
