Eddrick Bethune was last seen alive in grainy footage being dragged into a car by two men dressed like police officers.
The 22-year-old was allegedly abducted from a North Miami apartment complex following a shooting shortly after midnight on Oct. 4.
Shocking cellphone video captured by a neighbor showed Bethune struggling with the men on a sidewalk outside the complex where his family said he lived, according to WPLG Local 10.
The suspects wore all black, with the word “police” written on their backs. They beat Bethune as he tried to break free. They eventually threw him into the back of a silver-grey vehicle and fled the scene with the back passenger door still wide open.
Earlier that night, a neighbor recorded audio of at least a dozen gunshots ringing out at the complex.
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A separate video shows two men in all black jumping out of a third-floor apartment window. One appears to drop a bundle of cash, and bills scatter across the ground as he runs off. The men in the window video have not been identified. Police have not said whether they are the same two men who abducted Bethune.
Around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 4, a captain with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office found a man’s body, later identified as Bethune, in the Redland, a rural unincorporated area about 20 miles southeast of Miami. The body showed evidence of gunshot wounds and was lying on the shoulder of a roadway, according to detectives.
About five miles away, arson investigators responded to a report of a torched car.
A Sheriff’s Office press release said they determined it had been intentionally set on fire. Detectives believe both Bethune’s death and the torched vehicle are connected to the shooting. The release stated: “The decedent matched the description of the abducted victim, and the vehicle matched the one driven by the subjects.”
The investigation is ongoing. Police have not released any suspects’ names or announced any arrests. The Sheriff’s Office urges anyone with information to contact homicide investigators at (305) 471-2400 or Crime Stoppers.
