VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A Deltona man arrested this week is accused of perpetrating a drive-by shooting in February that hurt a 16-year-old and threatened an infant, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
Miguel Miranda, 19, faces charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and firing into an occupied dwelling.
On the morning of Feb. 12, 2023, Volusia deputies responded to reports of a shooting on Trade Street in Deltona.
The 16-year-old victim said he had been sleeping in the front bedroom of his home with his 7-week-old nephew when he was shot in the arm through a window, according to the sheriff’s office.
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The infant was unharmed and the victim is expected to make a full recovery, a news release states.
After several months of investigation, the sheriff’s office said it was able to narrow down Miranda as the main suspect.
“This really could’ve been much, much worse. We had really little information to go on,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said.
Miranda was the driver in a single-vehicle Daytona Beach crash on April 1 that killed three of his passengers, two of whom had been previously interviewed during the initial shooting investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.
While investigating the crash, deputies found a handgun near the driver’s seat of the vehicle which was later determined to be the same firearm used in the drive-by shooting, the release states.
“If we didn’t have the crash, we wouldn’t be where we were,” Chitwood explained. “It would have been zero there. That gun is what links everything up.”
Deputies added that historical cell phone data showed Miranda’s phone at the crime scene around the time the shooting occurred.
Miranda was arrested in Deltona on Wednesday and is being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail on no bond.
“Let’s make no mistake here: our suspect in this case is extremely, extremely violent. As a juvenile, he’s been arrested for attempted murder, aggravated stalking, weapons offenses,” Chitwood said.
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