Man, girlfriend and grandmother charged in shooting of 11-year-old girl in Miami

MIAMI – A man, his girlfriend and the grandmother of an 11-year-old girl face charges after the child was found shot to death in the family’s Miami apartment.

The incident occurred Tuesday at an apartment complex at 200 NW 17th St., south of Wynwood.

Charlene Ann Webster, 69, told police she was in her bedroom with the girl’s father, 40-year-old Titato Clarke, when she heard a loud bang come out of the children’s room around noon.

Clarke ran into the room and found his daughter, 11-year-old Taliyah Clarke, and her 9-year-old brother. The girl was bleeding from a Gunshot wound to her chest.

Family members took the girl to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery. Later died.

“This girl deserves justice, man,” a witness told CBS News Miami. “If life matters, like I said, that could have been my niece or something.”

Webster told police at the time of the shooting that she, Clarke and his girlfriend, 43-year-old Nancy Severe, lived in the apartment along with three children.

At the hospital, Clarke told officers “several conflicting stories” about how his daughter was shot, according to police.

A check of records revealed that Clarke had been convicted of 12 felonies. On Tuesday around 7 p.m., police executed a search warrant for the apartment. In the child’s bedroom, they found a single shell casing on the floor next to a dog cage. On top of the cage, they found a .40 caliber Glock wrapped in a pink scarf and a brown blanket.

“If it really had been a passing driver — let’s be honest, I would have heard it,” the witness said. “And I probably would have called.”

Clarke, Severe and Webster were then taken into custody and charged with manslaughter. When they appeared in bail court on Wednesday, the judge explained that they were all charged because they are considered the girl’s caregivers under Florida law.