
Lareine Barbie Cruz | PA Media
On November 9, 2024, a DoorDash driver was delivering food to a Miami high-rise when he found himself in the middle of a shooting. He rode the elevator to the 31st floor with a woman who appeared agitated, then watched her bang on an apartment door. Moments later, a single gunshot rang out, and the woman collapsed, bleeding from her neck. The driver called 911 and took cover in a nearby apartment.
Police arrived and followed a trail of blood back to the door of 22-year-old Lareine Cruz. After nearly an hour of negotiations, she surrendered without resistance. Inside her apartment, officers found a 9mm handgun and a bullet hole through the door that matched the victimās wound. According to police, Lareine and the victim were involved in a love triangle with the same manāan arrangement that had recently ended, leaving the original girlfriend feeling betrayed and volatile.
Lareine told the man to ācome get your girlā after the victim began banging on her door. Investigators say Lareine then fired blindly through the closed door, hitting the woman in the neck. The bullet was lodged near the victimās spine and had to be surgically removed. Lareine was charged with attempted second-degree murder and remains in custody. Prosecutors now face the challenge of proving that she acted with a ādepraved mindā under Florida law.
Like reading instead of listening? Read the episode transcript here:
Love and Murder brings you your Florida Man Friday edition
A woman was banging on the door, yelling. Then a single shot rang out. What happened in that Miami high rise apartment wasnāt random. It was personal. And a witness caught every second of it. Welcome, lambs. Welcome to Love and Murder. Heartbreak to homicide, your Florida Man Friday edition. Hi, my name is Ky. Take a seat, kick your feet up, listen all the way to the end. And if you like it, donāt forget to subscribe. You can also subscribe on our Patreon patreon.com loveandmurder for free, where you do get benefits for being a free lamb. But if you want to get deeper into the cases, get case files bonus episodes. Be a sponsor of Love and Murder to help me continue bringing the victim stories. Then go ahead and sign up to one of the bonus tiers that we have in our Patreon and join the lam. Patreon.com/loveandmurder now without further ado, uh, letās get into your Florida Man Friday.
A doordash delivery driver was shot in the neck during a delivery
A doordash driver in the middle of a routine delivery had just witnessed something horrifying. Quote, I just made a delivery and thereās a woman, sheās bleeding. She was banging on a door and then I heard a loud bang like a gunshot. Now sheās on the floor holding her neck. Thereās so much blood. Within minutes, Miami police officers arrived at the scene to find a chaotic situation. A female victim lay outside an apartment building, bleeding in profusely from a gunshot wound to her neck. Police immediately radioed for medical assistance while establishing a perimeter around the crime scene. Quote Anytime we have a shooting on any street and someone is injured, it is of great concern not only for the community, but for those in law enforcement that is here to protect the public. First responders from the Miami Dade Fire Rescue quickly transported the critically injured woman, who was not named, to Jackson Memorial Hospital Riders Trauma center for emergency treatment. Meanwhile, additional police started investigating the crime scene. Quote, itās amazing that sheās alive. This bullet entered her neck, and itās fortunate it did not enter her spine. The bulletās location in her neck required immediate surgery because medical personnel said that the bullet was still in her neck and it was dangerously close to the victimās spinal column. During the investigation, police interviewed the doordash driver who was their only eyewitness. Imagine youāre a doordash driver. Youāre just trying to deliver some food, and now you become the witness in an attempted murder case. Like, can you imagine? I mean, after the fair and everything dies down, dude, you have a story for the Rest of your life. The man explained to police that he had been making a routine food delivery to the building at the time of the shooting. He said he rode up to the 31st floor in an elevator with the victim. During the brief elevator ride, he said the woman appeared visibly agitated and angry. And then when they got to the floor, he witnessed her immediately go to a specific apartment door. The man alleged he rode the elevator with the victim, whom he said he saw angrily banging and kicking the door of one of the apartment units. The delivery driver described how the confrontation quickly went from right in the elevator to going to the door and kicking on it, to getting shot in the neck. After seeing the victim forcefully kick in the door, he heard a single gunshot. And then after that he saw the victim clutching her neck, which was now pouring blood because he didnāt know who had even shot a gun. He. And fearing for his own safety, as would anybody, the delivery driver immediately stopped, dropped and rolled. Because, I mean, I wouldnāt remember what my school said back in elementary, what I was supposed to do in what situation. So theyāre just all going to culminate in one. I know Iām supposed to stop. And after stop comes drop and roll. End of story. So, so anyway, he dove for safety and from where he was, he could actually see everything that was still going on. And he stayed there until the police ARR. Look, dude, I donāt blame you. I might stay there until the police escorted me to my house. So I donāt blame you. So after they took his statement, police went and investigated the building. And inside the building they found a blood trail which started from where the victim had fallen all throughout the 31st floor hallway. Following the path, police were led directly to a very specific apartment door. When they investigated who resided at this apartment, they found it was 22 year old Lorraine Barbie Cruz. Police immediately established a tactical position outside of her apartment. They identified themselves Miami Police department and told Lorraine to come out with your hands up. Detective uh, Rodriguez, who headed the initial response team, said, when we encounter a shooting scene with this much blood loss, we treat it as potentially fatal until medical professionals indicate otherwise. So basically what he means is they were treating this as a murder investigation, even though they didnāt know if the victim survived yet or not. Officers then secured the elevator to prevent escape and basically cleared all other apartments to make sure that everybody else was safe. Then building management also provided floor plans and key access, allowing police to be to coordinate their approach from multiple angles if they needed to. So if Lorraine didnāt give herself up. And they needed to have another approach. They had a backup plan. At first, Lorraine had barricaded herself inside the apartment. Then, uh, police negotiators were able to establish communication, and she realized she really had no option. It was like, you either come out or this is going to be Thelma and Louise without the Louise. So you have a choice. So after approximately 47 minutes of negotiation, Lorraine chose to surrender. She opened her apartment door with her hands raised above her head, and police immediately handcuffed her. Quote, the suspect complied with all verbal commands and offered no physical resistance. When police entered her apartment, they found the gun that they believed to have been used in the shooting. A 9 millimeter handgun registered to Lorraine. The gun was found on her kitchen counter alongside a partially emptied box of ammunition. Wow. Was she about to shoot some more? Also, police documented a single bullet hole through Lorraineās front door that aligned with the victimās neck injury. Forensics teamed, photographed, and collected evidence throughout the scene as Lorraine was escorted to a waiting police car. So basically, wtf is going on? How did it go from Iām delivering food to all of this? What happened? Well, according to the, uh, arrest report, it all started with a tangled web of a love triangle. The man connected to both women told police that heād been in a relationship with the victim for about five years. Then, uh, two years ago, he started seeing Lorraine, and the three of them eventually started into a polyamorous relationship. But that arrangement didnāt last. The man said heād recently broken things off with his original girlfriend, which was the victim, due to, quote, relationship issues, and decided to stay in a monogamous relationship with Lorraine. According to him, that breakup didnāt go over well. I mean. I mean, now, lambs tell me in the comments if your dude cheated on you with some woman, okay? And then he came home and heās like, look, baby, baby, baby, look, baby, I donāt wanna leave you, baby. I love you, girl. But what I wanna do is I wanna date this other girl, but I still wanna date you. You think we could go, Polly? And you bit your lip and you put the frying pan down. Cause you was about to bust him over the head with it. And you said, you know, I think youāre worth it. All right, Iām going to try this out for you. I love you. I donāt want to lose you either. Blah, blah, blah. So you go into this polyamorous relationship with him and this girl, then this beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Decides to break up with you, saying relationship issues, and not only break up with you, but then he decides to be faithful to the woman he was cheating on you with. I mean, is the breakup going to go over well after that? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Lorraine allegedly fired through closed door, striking woman in neck
Police said, shocker of all shockers. The victim had become jealous and confrontational. You think so? Then it came to a head early that morning. Oh, my, uh, God. Wait till yāall hear this. Around 6am the man was out on Lorraineās balcony smoking a cigarette. Well, how did the victim see this? Because the victim lived directly across the hall. What is going on here? Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, what is going on, dude? You just had them living across from each other and you thought you were going to break up with your girlfriend and be like, you know what? I think Iām going to be monogamous to this other person. So donāt look across the hall if you donāt want to see us doing anything. Okay. What the. She allegedly screamed out, quote, thatās what you want to do. Loud enough to be heard across the building. I mean, truthfully, you shouldnāt be screaming your whole business out in public like that. Kinda, kinda gotta, you know, rein it in, control yourself. But I mean, if youāre gonna take that whole long trip to go up to this girlās apartment to kick on her door, then I guess you donāt care. Not judging. Iāve done that twice in my life where I was screaming out in public because this person had me so angry. So I have done it a couple times, but itās not really my M.O. so I understand emotions get high. So wanting to avoid the drama, the man went back inside and left Lorraineās apartment shortly after. I mean, you know, a better way that you could have avoided the drama, Literally not cheated on her, you know, just leave her and then maybe get with somebody thatās not right across the street. I donāt know. Just my opinion. But even though he did that, the situation didnāt end there. Later that day, Lorraine reportedly called him, saying, quote, come get your girl. Sheās outside banging on my door. And thatās when things exploded. According to investigators, the victim never entered the apartment. Detectives said Lorraine, quote, fired through the closed door, striking the woman blindly in the neck. The bullet was later surgically removed at the hospital, but the womanās long term condition wasnāt immediately clear. Basically, sheās alive still, but they donāt know if, you know, thereās going to be any long term issues. Quote, the evidence suggests she made a conscious decision to discharge the weapon, knowing someone was on the other side. And the prosecutionās charging decision hinged mainly on detectives saying that Lorraine, quote, blindly fired through the door without visual confirmation of her target. Meaning you canāt say you were doing a warning shot. You canāt say, you know what Iām saying. I was just trying to shoot her in the leg so she couldnāt come get me. You didnāt know where you were shooting. For all you know, you could have shot her in the head, which you almost did because you shot her in the neck. So thatās what the prosecution is looking at. At her initial court hearing, the presiding judge denied Lorraine Bond, uh, citing the severity of the charges and saying that she was a potential flight risk. As of the last update, Lorraine was being held at Miami Dade Corrections. And unlike typical county inmates, she was placed in a segregated housing unit. Due to the high profile nature of her case, sheās facing charges of attempted second degree murder and use of a firearm while committing a felony. Her next court date was set for December 2, 2024. But as usual, except in all five years, I only got one case where it actually happened on the date it was supposed to happen. But anyway, I didnāt see any updates. And thereās no information yet on whether sheās entered a plea or retained an attorney. The prosecution faces the challenge of, uh, proven that Lorraine acted with, quote, depraved mind, which is a legal standard for second degree murder in Florida. That requires showing extreme indifference to human life without premeditation, which, you know, I donāt know. I would have to know this person more. I would have to know their backstory about the victim and about Lorraine. You know, so it could be a backstory where Lorraine really feared for her life. She thought this woman was going to kick the door down and beat her with a sandal or something. I donāt know. So it could have been that she felt she was acting in self defense, or it could have been that she was like, well, Iām going to pretend this is how Iām acting and Iām going to shoot her through the door and try and take her out. Then I have whatās his name to myself. This is all alleged. And this is just my opinion. Iām saying because I donāt know these people, I donāt know their background history. They didnāt put that in the report, in any of the reports. So Iām just trying to figure out, you know, she could have Been doing it in self defense or she could have been doing in premeditated murder, you know, just trying to use the COVID as self defense. The reports also didnāt mention any trial updates, defense arguments or sentencing details. So for now the case is still open and I will put it in my list of cases to keep updated, which Iām so horrible at keeping up with. Itās really hard when you donāt have a co host and youāre doing everything alone. So I am going to put this in my case to follow up with updates and I will just keep looking back at it periodically and that is all I have for you for today. Let me know your thoughts on this crazy case in the comments below and your comments will be read in a future episode. So I look forward to reading your comments.
Lamb says he has a favorite episode from his True Crime podcast
And before I go, I, uh, know people usually ask me like, whatās my favorite episode? And I donāt usually have a favorite episode because I know this is gonna sound bad, but itās really for my mental health. Usually once Iām done with a case, I forget about the case unless itās put into my list that I have to check for updates. Then I have to, I actually write a TLDR for each case so I can remember it. But I, I really, I forget primarily about what happened in the case because I donāt want to keep, I donāt want to keep that weight on me. You know what Iām saying? So Thursday I was doing a TBT for the social media. I just chose randomly a really, really past episode. And then I realized, you know what, I do have a favorite episode. If you are a new lam, then you donāt know this, but if youāre a returning lamb, you heard this case. So at the last episode of season three, I interviewed a woman whose boyfriend murdered their kid. He was uh, 15 months or so. And I actually, that was my only interview. And I interviewed her and she talked about the case. She talked about the intricacies that you donāt see in reports you donāt hear normally. So we got the inside scoop on this case. Um, and then after that, the first episode of season four was the actual case. So those two are my favorite episodes because you actually got to speak to the person. I know Iām usually yelling at the mic, telling the victims families, you know, I understand and I empathize with you and everything like that, but I actually got to speak to a victimās family, you know, and it was somebody whose child was taken for that from them. And itās interesting that I just remembered about this case. Not that I forgot about the case, but, you know, it came back up in my wheelhouse because April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. So, um, yeah, I put that all as a tbt. So if youāre new here and you havenāt heard that case, Iām going to put both of them, part one and part two. The interview is part one. The actual case is part two. The links to them in the show notes below, so you can listen to that. And again, April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, so, um, I think itās kind of timely to listen to these episodes and hear it actually from the mother of a victim. And I actually asked her, what does she think of True Crime podcast? I literally asked her that. So if you want to hear her answer, go ahead and listen to that episode. Itās in the show notes below. If youāve heard it before but you donāt remember it or you just want to listen to it again, again, links to it are in the show notes below. And as always, thanks for joining me. Thanks for listening all the way to the end. Thanks for being a lamb. Thank you so much for your support and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.
Past Cases Mentioned in this Episode:
Ā
My Serial Killer Boyfriend Murdered Our Son ā Part 1 ā The Interview with Hera McLeod
https://murderandlove.com/my-serial-killer-boyfriend-murdered-our-son-hera-mcleod/
Serial Killer Father Murdered His Son ā Part 2 ā The Case of Joaquin Rams
https://murderandlove.com/serial-killer-father-murdered-his-son-case-of-joaquin-rams/

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