Authorities said the victim was shot during a call to help regain entry to an apartment.
MIAMI — Miami police arrested a 32-year-old man on a second-degree murder charge after investigators said he shot and killed a locksmith who was working on a door lock Friday evening, Feb. 20, in an apartment building near the 6300 block of Southwest Eighth Street.
The case centers on a short window of time that investigators say began with a routine lock-change and ended with a fatal shot in a seventh-floor hallway. Police identified the victim as Adrian Venereo, 37, and said he was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspect, Luis David Lemus, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, and authorities said key questions, including why the shooting happened, were still unanswered.
Police said officers responded to a shooting call at about 6:20 p.m. at the Southwest Eighth Street address. When they arrived, they found Venereo with an apparent gunshot wound to the head, the City of Miami Police Department said. Miami Fire Rescue pronounced him dead at the scene. Investigators later documented the location of the shooting as a hallway on the seventh floor, indicating the gunfire occurred inside the building rather than outside on the street or in a parking area.
A witness account described in the arrest report placed Lemus with the victim moments before the shooting. The witness told police he and Lemus had been changing the locks on Lemus’ front door, then found themselves locked out of the apartment after the work was finished. The witness said they called Venereo, described as a locksmith, to help them regain entry. Police said that while Venereo worked on the lock, Lemus shot him in the head. Investigators did not publicly describe any argument or dispute immediately before the shot.
When officers arrived, the arrest report said, the witness was holding a revolver and told investigators Lemus had fled. The witness also told police Lemus ran from the building and said he had “hurt someone,” the report said. Officers interviewed witnesses at the scene and then reviewed surveillance video from the apartment building, police said. Investigators said they identified Lemus based on witness descriptions and the clothing captured in the footage.
Police said the surveillance video showed Lemus following Venereo to his apartment, a detail investigators used as part of the identification. After the review, police detained Lemus near the intersection of Southwest 52nd Court and Southwest Seventh Street, according to the arrest report, after officers said they saw him wearing the same clothing seen on video. Lemus was transported to the Miami Police Homicide Office for questioning. A statement he gave there was redacted from the publicly released report, and police did not provide additional details about what he told detectives.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and determined Venereo died from a gunshot wound to the head, police said. The medical examiner ruled the manner of death a homicide. Authorities did not release additional details about evidence collected at the scene, including whether investigators recovered the firearm used in the shooting. Police also did not say whether the revolver the witness was holding was connected to the homicide or was unrelated to the gunfire that killed Venereo.
Lemus was charged with second-degree murder with a deadly weapon, and jail records listed his bond status as “to be set.” That designation typically means a judge must still decide whether a defendant can be released while a case moves forward and under what conditions. Police did not announce a court schedule beyond the expected bond hearing process, and prosecutors had not publicly described potential next steps such as filing formal information, presenting evidence in a probable-cause setting, or setting future hearing dates.
The location of the shooting inside a residential building can complicate an investigation because it requires detectives to track who was inside the complex and when, including visitors, delivery workers and residents moving through stairwells and elevators. Investigators often seek hallway and lobby video to build a minute-by-minute timeline, then match it with witness statements and the movements of any suspects after a shooting. In this case, police said the clothing on surveillance video played a key role in identifying Lemus after the gunfire.
Police have not said whether Venereo had been to the building before or whether the locksmith was called through a business line or a personal contact. Investigators also have not addressed whether anyone else was in the seventh-floor hallway at the moment of the shooting, or whether residents heard conversation leading up to it. Authorities have described the motive as unclear, leaving open why a service call meant to open a door ended with a killing.
By Monday, Feb. 23, Lemus remained in custody at TGK awaiting a bond hearing, and police had not announced additional charges or suspects. Detectives continued reviewing surveillance video and witness accounts as the case moved toward its next court milestone.
Author note: Last updated February 23, 2026.