The house where multiple people were shot and 1 person died in Northwest Miami Dade Sunday night is home to a religious organization run by Maurice Symonette, also known as Michael the Black Man.
Symonette has gained notoriety as Michael the Black Man who is seen regularly at Donald Trump rallies and famously captured in a photo during Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020 waving a Blacks for Trump sign. He is also president of what is registered as a not-for-profit corporation Boss Group Ministries.
On Symonette’s Linked In page, he states that every Sunday his Boss Group Ministries has invited “children of South Florida” since 1998 to gather at the 5-acre compound for the Free Jet Ski/Mansion Party. The compound is located at 15020 South River Drive.
There are videos posted on YouTube of the Jet Ski parties which feature fashion and talent shows.
About 50 people were at the party, according to initial reports.
One witness said after Sunday night’s shooting:
“It’s a Jet Ski party, we have this every Sunday, and then that’s when a fight broke out and then one thing led to another and then shots were fired, multiple people got shot,” one witness said.
On Monday, Local 10 News asked Symonette about the shooting. He defended the events at the home, saying there were lots of parties over the holiday weekend and this could have happened anywhere in his neighborhood.
WATCH: Maurice Symonette speaks about fatal shooting that occurred on his property
Maurice Symonette told Local 10 News that he wasn’t at a party on his property Easter Sunday that resulted in one person being killed and three others being injured in a shooting.
“It’s Easter,” he said. “All these people had a whole bunch of people at their house. It could’ve happened in anybody’s yard.”
Symonette said he heard the shooting was the result of an altercation over a cellphone, but said he actually wasn’t at the party himself.
“The bottom line is, I wasn’t there and I didn’t tell them they could come in my yard. That’s what the problem is,” he said.
Symonette was featured in Local 10′s podcast The Florida Files in a series about cult leader Yahweh Ben Yahweh.
(Hear the episode below
Symonette, who is still a Yahweh, was born Michael Woodside. Woodside was charged and acquitted in 1992 of participating in a murder on behalf of ben Yahweh.
ben Yahweh and 12 followers were indicted in 1992 on three counts of federal racketeering and extortion charges. The indictment charged 18 specific instances of racketeering that included 14 killings, two attempted killings, extortion and arson.
At the Jet Ski party just after 10 p.m. Sunday night, Miami-Dade Police Department detective Alvaro Zabaleta described the scene:
“Units responded to a shooting at a residence. As the officers arrived, they discovered four people shot. An adult male was shot, an adult female was grazed and two juveniles were shot in the lower extremities. The adult male along with the juveniles were transported to Ryder Trauma Center. . . Investigators are in the process to determine who the shooter may have been.”
The name of the person who died has not been released.
(Listen to all episodes of The Florida Files below, including the complete series on Yahweh ben Yahweh)
Continue reading...
Symonette has gained notoriety as Michael the Black Man who is seen regularly at Donald Trump rallies and famously captured in a photo during Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020 waving a Blacks for Trump sign. He is also president of what is registered as a not-for-profit corporation Boss Group Ministries.
On Symonette’s Linked In page, he states that every Sunday his Boss Group Ministries has invited “children of South Florida” since 1998 to gather at the 5-acre compound for the Free Jet Ski/Mansion Party. The compound is located at 15020 South River Drive.
There are videos posted on YouTube of the Jet Ski parties which feature fashion and talent shows.
About 50 people were at the party, according to initial reports.
One witness said after Sunday night’s shooting:
“It’s a Jet Ski party, we have this every Sunday, and then that’s when a fight broke out and then one thing led to another and then shots were fired, multiple people got shot,” one witness said.
On Monday, Local 10 News asked Symonette about the shooting. He defended the events at the home, saying there were lots of parties over the holiday weekend and this could have happened anywhere in his neighborhood.
WATCH: Maurice Symonette speaks about fatal shooting that occurred on his property
Maurice Symonette told Local 10 News that he wasn’t at a party on his property Easter Sunday that resulted in one person being killed and three others being injured in a shooting.
“It’s Easter,” he said. “All these people had a whole bunch of people at their house. It could’ve happened in anybody’s yard.”
Symonette said he heard the shooting was the result of an altercation over a cellphone, but said he actually wasn’t at the party himself.
“The bottom line is, I wasn’t there and I didn’t tell them they could come in my yard. That’s what the problem is,” he said.
Symonette was featured in Local 10′s podcast The Florida Files in a series about cult leader Yahweh Ben Yahweh.
(Hear the episode below
Symonette, who is still a Yahweh, was born Michael Woodside. Woodside was charged and acquitted in 1992 of participating in a murder on behalf of ben Yahweh.
ben Yahweh and 12 followers were indicted in 1992 on three counts of federal racketeering and extortion charges. The indictment charged 18 specific instances of racketeering that included 14 killings, two attempted killings, extortion and arson.
At the Jet Ski party just after 10 p.m. Sunday night, Miami-Dade Police Department detective Alvaro Zabaleta described the scene:
“Units responded to a shooting at a residence. As the officers arrived, they discovered four people shot. An adult male was shot, an adult female was grazed and two juveniles were shot in the lower extremities. The adult male along with the juveniles were transported to Ryder Trauma Center. . . Investigators are in the process to determine who the shooter may have been.”
The name of the person who died has not been released.
(Listen to all episodes of The Florida Files below, including the complete series on Yahweh ben Yahweh)
Continue reading...