A 19-year-old man was arrested in Hialeah early Tuesday after police said he was seen trying to open car doors in a residential neighborhood and was found carrying a stolen firearm.
According to an arrest report, officers were sent to the area of East Fourth Avenue and East 56th Street shortly before 2:30 a.m. after receiving reports of a suspicious person. The caller described the man as wearing a white hoodie, white pants and a mask.
Police said they found the suspect, identified as Amari Richardson, nearby. He had a shirt fashioned into a makeshift mask over his face, which he pulled down as officers approached.
When officers asked if he had any weapons, Richardson told them he had a gun, investigators said. They recovered a black Smith & Wesson handgun from his waistband. Police later determined that the weapon had been reported stolen out of Miramar.
The report also says a witness told officers he saw Richardson trying to open the doors of a parked GMC van as the witness was leaving his home for work.
Under questioning, Richardson said he was coming from a club in Opa-locka and was walking to a friend's home in West Hialeah, but he could not give an address. Investigators said he offered conflicting explanations for why he was walking through the residential area rather than following the directions on his phone. According to the report, he told officers he ignored the map because he had "free will."
Police noted that the neighborhood had recently seen a rise in burglaries and thefts.
Richardson was arrested and charged with grand theft of a firearm, wearing a mask on a street, and loitering or prowling.
At his bond court appearance Tuesday, a judge found probable cause and ordered house arrest with a $2,800 bond.
