Police say a 37-year-old man followed a victim on foot before opening fire outside an apartment complex near the Palmetto Expressway.
HIALEAH, Fla. — Surveillance video released Thursday shows the moments before a man in his 50s was shot to death outside a Hialeah apartment complex, as police said they arrested a 37-year-old suspect within hours and charged him with second-degree murder.
The case drew sharp attention in Hialeah because the shooting happened in a residential area just before sunrise, near a school bus route and the entrance to a condominium complex. Police have identified the suspect as Dairon Rosas Delgado, but they have not publicly explained a motive. Relatives identified the victim as Dick Estrada, a husband and father of two who they said was heading to work when he was killed. By Thursday morning, the case had moved from a neighborhood manhunt to a first court appearance, where a judge denied bond.
Police said officers began getting calls at about 6:18 a.m. Wednesday after neighbors reported hearing up to 10 shots near West 19th Avenue and West 56th Street. The area is just east of the Palmetto Expressway, outside the Palm West Gardens condominium complex at 1990 W. 56th St. According to investigators, surveillance footage shows the victim walking eastbound along the south sidewalk on West 56 Street before sunrise. The video then shows a man police identified as Delgado trailing behind him with a gun. Investigators said Delgado raised the firearm and fired several times, then turned and went back into the complex. A yellow tarp later covered the body on the sidewalk as officers secured the area and homicide detectives began interviewing witnesses.
Neighbors described a burst of violence that broke the morning routine. One resident told reporters it sounded like a rifle, and then a woman could be heard screaming, “No, no, no.” Another witness, Lisandra Hernandez, said people in the area were shaken and worried. Eddie Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Hialeah Police Department, said officers found the victim dead on the sidewalk when they arrived. Rodriguez also said the victim was a man in his 50s. Police did not release the victim’s name Thursday, but relatives told local television crews that the man was Estrada. Adelkis, a woman who said Estrada was her cousin’s husband, said he was a working man who came to support his family. She said Estrada’s wife realized something was wrong when his car was still parked outside and he was not answering his phone.
Investigators have given only a narrow picture of what led to the arrest. Police said Delgado fled after the shooting, and officers later stopped him while he was driving near West Fourth Avenue and West 18th Street in Hialeah. He was taken into custody at 12:55 p.m. Wednesday. Investigators said Delgado lived in the same complex across from where the shooting happened. Rodriguez described the killing as a “random act of violence,” but detectives have also said they are still trying to determine why Estrada was targeted. That leaves one of the most important questions unresolved: whether the two men knew each other and what, if anything, happened before the gunfire. For now, authorities have not described any dispute, argument or prior confrontation between the suspect and the victim.
Records described evidence that detectives said tied Delgado to the killing. According to the arrest report, officers found the victim had been shot several times in the torso. A police officer wrote that patrol officers located a puddle of blood and 11 spent casings at the scene. Detectives later reported finding a firearm in Delgado’s black SUV, inside a black fanny pack that was also visible on surveillance footage. Police said the same bag held Delgado’s passport and several identification cards. Investigators also said the caliber of the gun matched the caliber of evidence collected at the scene. Detectives interviewed a witness who had access to the surveillance video and knew tenants at the complex. Authorities said those early steps helped them identify Delgado as the suspect within hours of the shooting.
The arrest report added another detail that widened the public focus on the case. Detectives said Delgado left the complex in a black SUV with a woman who was later identified as his mother. According to police, she told investigators that she saw Delgado fire the weapon. Detectives said Delgado then drove her to work after the shooting. That account, if tested later in court, could become a major part of the prosecution’s timeline because it places another witness with the suspect soon after the gunfire. Still, key facts remain unproven in open court, and the case is in its early stages. Prosecutors have charged Delgado with second-degree murder, but there has been no public presentation yet of a fuller theory about intent, planning or any relationship between the men.
By Thursday morning, the case had shifted from a crime scene investigation to the first formal court step. Delgado appeared before Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer and faced the second-degree murder charge. Court records showed Glazer denied bond. Delgado was booked Wednesday night at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center after his arrest earlier in the day. The next stages are likely to include continued forensic testing, more witness interviews and a decision by prosecutors on whether the charge remains the same or is adjusted as the investigation develops. Detectives have asked anyone with information to come forward, signaling that while an arrest has been made, they still believe there are details missing from the full story of what happened on that sidewalk before sunrise.
Residents in the neighborhood said the scene felt especially jarring because it unfolded in a place people use to leave for work, walk to cars and wait for the day to start. One nearby woman said she had lived there since 2001 and had never heard of something so sad happening in the area. The school bus seen on surveillance footage underscored how ordinary the setting was before the gunfire broke out. For Estrada’s relatives, the public release of the video only deepened the grief. They said he left home to support his family and never made it to work. For neighbors, the images turned a burst of shots they heard at dawn into a clearer picture of how quickly the killing happened and how close it came to their homes.
The case stood Thursday with Delgado jailed without bond, Estrada publicly mourned by relatives and police still searching for a motive. The next milestone is the continuing court process in Miami-Dade County as detectives complete their evidence review and prosecutors move the case forward.
Author note: Last updated March 12, 2026.