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Insets: Kamarri Sanders and Beatrice Saintvil with her daughter Janelle Souffrant (Broward Sheriff’s Office). Background: The car Beatrice Saintvil and her daughter were sitting in when they were shot and killed (WFOR/YouTube).
Three men from Florida have now been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly gunning down a mother and her 4-year-old daughter as they were driving on the state’s turnpike late one night, with cops busting a third suspect Friday.
Kamarri Sanders, 20, was caught by the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Miami Gardens through “investigative efforts” by BSO homicide detectives and its Violence Intervention Proactive Enforcement Response (VIPER) unit, a press release says.
In December, VIPER investigators took Antoine Harris, 28, and Jaquan Thomas, 29, into custody for the double homicide of Beatrice Saintvil, 28, and her daughter Janelle Souffrant in June 2024. The two men, along with Sanders, allegedly gunned down Saintvil and Souffrant as they were driving on Florida’s Turnpike near Hollywood Boulevard and Mile Marker 49. The trio is accused of opening fire on Saintvil’s vehicle on June 7 — a Friday night — at around 11:15 p.m., according to BSO officials. She and Souffrant were found dead inside of their vehicle, which was parked on the left shoulder of the turnpike.
Cops charged Harris and Thomas each with two counts of first-degree murder, with Thomas being charged while behind bars in Georgia for unrelated crimes and Harris after he was arrested in Miami Gardens on Dec. 20 following a “months-long” investigation. Sanders faces two counts of murder as well.
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Transcripts of a 911 call placed by Saintvil detail how she was trying to talk to her daughter during their last moments alive together after they pulled over following the shooting.
“The caller kept stating ‘Where’s the baby,’ and ‘Get up, get up,” the dispatcher reported, according to Miami Fox affiliate WSVN. Souffrant wound up dying at the scene, per police officials, while Saintvil died at a hospital.
Anyley Cabrera, a motorist who was coming home from work and saw Saintvil’s car on the side of the road, told Miami CBS affiliate WFOR that the vehicle was decimated in a hail of bullets.
“The car was destroyed,” she said.
Broward County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Claudinne Caro, describing the brutal nature of the double homicide — for which a motive has not been identified — told WSVN: “This is one of those cases that truly breaks your heart. We’re talking about a mom and her 4-year-old daughter shot to death inside their vehicle.”
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Last year, BSO officials said investigators were looking into whether Saintvil and Souffrant’s deaths stemmed from a road rage incident or if they were targeted.
“Detectives have more questions than answers and they really need the public to come forward,” Caro said last June. “Somebody must have heard something. Somebody could have seen something.”
Sanders is being held at the BSO’s Main Jail, as is Harris, while authorities are waiting to extradite Thomas from Georgia.