Investigators said a locked door, hallway pacing and gunfire shaped the timeline of the Liberty City shooting.
MIAMI, Fla. — Security video, a blood-covered witness and a handgun recovered from a suspect’s pocket anchor a Miami double murder case after two brothers were shot dead inside their sister’s apartment, police said.
The May 2 shooting killed Jaheim Pierre, 23, and Gianni Pierre, 28, and led to two first-degree murder charges against Antwan Carter, 31. Police said the brothers came to their sister’s Liberty City apartment because they feared she was at risk from Carter, her boyfriend of about four years. Carter was denied bond after his arrest.
The investigation begins, in police records, not with the first punch but with what officers could see and hear on video. According to the arrest affidavit, Carter left the apartment after a fight with the brothers and went to his car. Investigators said footage showed him return with an unknown object and place it in his front right pocket. The woman locked the apartment door while he was gone. Carter then paced outside the unit, banged on the door and shouted at the men inside, police said. The woman told her brothers not to open the door. For several minutes, according to the affidavit, the door remained closed as Carter moved in the hallway.
Police said the door opened only after Jaheim Pierre unlocked it. Carter charged in while reaching toward the same pocket, investigators said. Gunshots followed. The affidavit says a woman screamed, then ran from the apartment barefoot, with blood on her feet. Local video reporting later described audio from inside the unit as a burst of gunfire followed by a scream and a woman yelling in the hallway that he had shot them. Officers who arrived at the apartment encountered Carter, who allegedly said, “I am the one; I have the firearm.” Police said he surrendered a 9 mm Glock 43 from his right pocket.
The physical scene matched a close-range, chaotic shooting inside a small home, according to police. Gianni Pierre was found bleeding next to a couch and was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he died. Jaheim Pierre was found bleeding in a closet and was pronounced dead at the apartment. Investigators said Jaheim ran toward his sister after being shot and collapsed on top of her as Carter continued firing. A police walkthrough found several spent casings and projectiles throughout the apartment. The affidavit also noted two major pools of blood, one near the couch where Gianni Pierre was found and one in the closet where Jaheim Pierre was found.
The girlfriend’s account gave police the reason the brothers were there. She said her brothers came over to look after her because of a previous history of domestic violence involving Carter. She told officers she had been with Carter for about four years. Police said the visit turned tense when Jaheim Pierre argued with her and then punched Carter after Carter interrupted. A scuffle followed among the three men. The affidavit does not say the brothers brought weapons. It does not name the girlfriend, and officials have not publicly detailed the earlier domestic violence history she described. Those parts of the case remain limited to what investigators included in the arrest paperwork.
Carter’s alleged words after the shooting may become important to prosecutors. According to the affidavit, he sat on the edge of a bed and told his girlfriend, “See what you made me do?” The woman answered, “I told you to leave,” before she ran from the apartment. That exchange, as described by police, places Carter inside the apartment after the shooting and suggests he knew what had happened. It also places the girlfriend as a surviving witness to the violence that killed both of her brothers. Prosecutors can use such statements to argue intent, while defense lawyers may argue over context, stress, timing or the exact meaning of the words.
Carter told police he fired because the brothers appeared ready to attack again. According to the affidavit, he said both men had squared up with fists raised. Police still charged him with two counts of first-degree murder. The charge requires prosecutors to prove more than the fact that shots were fired. They must prove the legal elements of murder beyond a reasonable doubt, while Carter’s defense can challenge intent, the sequence of the encounter and whether he reasonably feared harm when he pulled the gun. The question of why he left the apartment, why he returned and what he carried back inside is likely to be central.
At Carter’s first court appearance, a judge ordered him held without bond. Local reports said he entered a not guilty plea as the case moved into the court system. First-degree murder is a capital felony in Florida, although the filing of the charge does not by itself mean prosecutors will seek the death penalty. That decision would require further legal steps. The early court phase is expected to include discovery, evidence preservation, defense review of video and police records, and decisions about future hearings. The state’s strongest early evidence appears to include the girlfriend’s account, the security footage, Carter’s alleged statements and the recovered gun.
The deaths also shifted into public mourning. At a memorial, relatives and friends gathered to remember Jaheim and Gianni Pierre as brothers who had gone to help their sister. A man identified in local coverage as Gregory said they were “the life of the party,” a phrase that captured how family members wanted them remembered beyond the police report. Their deaths left the sister as both a survivor and a key witness. It also put the apartment building at the center of a wider conversation in the neighborhood about domestic violence, family protection and the sudden way private conflict can spill into public grief.
The next public milestones are expected in court, where prosecutors and defense lawyers will test the video, statements and forensic evidence now driving the case. As of Sunday, May 24, Carter remained held in the Miami case, charged with killing both Pierre brothers.
Author note: Last updated May 24, 2026.