Miami woman held at gunpoint, used as shield by burglar, police say

MIAMI – A Miami man terrorized multiple residents of an apartment building on the city’s Upper East Side Tuesday morning, earning him nearly a dozen felony charges, police said.

According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, officers responded to 638 Northeast 83rd Terrace just after 8:30 a.m. after receiving a report of an occupied burglary at the building.

A woman told police that she was in her bathroom getting ready for work when she heard a knock, then saw a man trying to take the screen off her bedroom window, the report states, prompting her to scream “get away from my window” and to call police.

Police said she then heard shattering glass. At that point, she “ran out of her apartment with only a towel on and began to knock on the neighbor’s door screaming for help.”

That’s when police said Alejandro Williams, 40, came out of an apartment pointing a gun at her. Police said he pulled her back into her apartment, towards the bathroom, saying “b—-, get back in here” and then “Lou, give me my kids b—-.”

Then, in a frightening moment, she heard a click, police said. A bullet fell to the floor.

The woman cried out “please don’t kill me,” according to the report. Police said she was “able to get away while (Williams) was screaming at the DVR system and (attempting) to unplug the DVR saying, ‘this s— about to go down.’”

Police said Williams also pointed a gun at a neighbor who came out to investigate the commotion, telling the man to “step back inside the house.”

At some point, Williams had also broken into another apartment, leaving behind a pair of slides, police said.

After police arrived, an officer saw Williams holding a gun and a screaming woman leaving an apartment and trying to run towards her, the report states.

Williams saw the officer and pointed a gun at her while holding the victim by the hair and “using her as a shield,” police said.

According to the report, the officer gave Williams “loud verbal commands to drop the weapon, but he proceeded to redirect the barrel of the handgun towards the female victim’s temple and dragged her by the hair inside the apartment while yelling ‘go inside b—-.’”

Police said Williams then barricaded himself inside the apartment and, after a few minutes, the officer heard the woman yell “help me,” saw her hand and then Williams on the roof of the building. The report states officers were able to get him to comply and turn himself in.

Williams, a resident of Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, faces 11 charges in connection with the incident, including attempted murder, burglary, kidnapping, false imprisonment and felon in possession of a firearm.

He was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Wednesday morning.