Naomi Simmons, an Air Force veteran, said she’s “still having nightmares” following an encounter with Miami-Dade Police officers who came to her home in search of a suspect who was already in custody.
In an interview with NBC 6 South Florida, Simmons said the June 14 incident occurred while she was home with her 7-year-old daughter. She said a loud banging left her feeling alarmed.
“Heard a loud bam on my daughter’s room window,” Simmons recalled. “When I opened the door, there were two guns pointed at me … I said, why are you guys at my door pointing guns?”
Simmons said the men she encountered when she opened the door were Miami-Dade Police officers, but she claimed they did not initially identify themselves.
“They didn’t say anything, so I just thought it was random people,” she said, adding that the officers later informed her that they had showed up to serve a warrant for a male suspect. That individual, identified as Marquise Wiley, was facing a felony gun charge.
“It was an address that he had on his I.D.,” Simmons said. She also said the officers informed her that Wiley was initially linked to that address. But she said she has stayed in that home with her daughter for over a year.
She said the incident got her angry and afraid. “I’m still not sleeping, I’m still having nightmares,” Simmons, who served in Afghanistan, told NBC 6 South Florida. “I already suffer from PTSD from my time in Afghanistan,” she added.
Simmons also said that shortly after the officers made their way out of her home, she started her own investigations on her cellphone. She said she opened a court website and ultimately determined Wiley’s whereabouts.
“The person was already incarcerated,” she revealed. It was also established that Wiley had actually been detained for months in connection with two criminal cases in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Court records also revealed that in January, Wiley was moved to a Broward jail to face a trial in connection with a masked robbery that occurred at a jewelry store in 2020, NBC 6 South Florida reported. He was convicted of that crime on May 9 and sentenced to 10 years and three months in state prison
“I was able to find it with no resources and a cellphone on my couch,” said Simmons. Miami-Dade Police informed the news outlet that a warrant to return Wiley to Miami-Dade County to face prosecution for his gun case was subsequently issued by a judge.
But the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Wiley was moved to state prison on June 13, adding that he was in their custody prior to that transfer. The officers went to Simmons’ house the following day.
“He was at the prison before they even came to my door,” Simmons said. “Frustrating and scary because you see all these things on the news about people that look like me men and women who are getting killed because police showed up at the wrong house,” she added.
The Miami-Dade Police Department said an investigation into the incident has since been launched.
