Shandell Harris

Shandell Harris was a 30-year-old Black woman from Miami, Florida, described by her family as a humble, happy person and a great mother. Her cousin said everything she did was for her child and her marriage. Harris, who had aspirations of one day becoming a Miami-Dade commissioner, was a dedicated mother to her young daughter.

The violence that ended her life began on Saturday, April 2, 2022. After Harris confronted her husband, 45-year-old Carl Monty Watts Jr., about his alleged infidelity and told him she wanted a divorce, he punched her in the face. According to police reports, he then grabbed a knife from their kitchen and stabbed her six times in the arm, hand, and thigh. Watts reportedly held a gun to his own head, threatening to kill himself if she left him. Harris managed to calm him down and later escaped to her mother’s house, where they called the police. Her mother, Dulcinea Everett, said they saw Watts outside her home and pointed him out to officers, but he drove away before he could be apprehended.

The next day, Sunday, April 3, Harris went with her mother and 12-year-old daughter to the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center in North Miami Beach for her daughter’s swimming lesson. Watts found them there and confronted Harris on the pool deck. He offered her money to drop the charges from the stabbing the day before. When Harris refused and asked him to leave, he pulled out a gun.

Witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots. Harris’s mother recalled that her daughter ran, but Watts “just walked behind her and just kept shooting.” According to police, Watts chased Harris and shot her multiple times. After she collapsed, he stood over her and continued to fire until he ran out of ammunition. He was detained at the scene by private security and arrested by Miami-Dade Police.

Watts was charged with second-degree murder. During a court appearance, the judge questioned why the charge was not first-degree murder, noting that Watts had gone to the community center with a gun. Investigators also noted that Watts has an extensive criminal history and is a person of interest in the 2014 disappearance of Trukita Scott, a Fort Lauderdale woman with whom he shares a child.

Through his attorneys, Carl Monty Watts Jr. entered a plea of not guilty to the murder charge. As of April 2022, the case was proceeding through the court system.