The man accused of shooting at a Miami apartment fire has been convicted of attempted murder

The man accused of setting fire to a four-story Miami apartment building on Monday morning and shooting an employee there spent nearly eight years in prison for attempted second-degree murder in the 1990s.

Details of the attempted murder were not immediately clear, although Juan Francisco Figueroa, 73, spent seven years in prison, state records show. Since the late 1980s, Puerto Rico-born Figueroa was also arrested by Miami and Miami-Dade police on two counts of aggravated assault and battery, as well as another burglary of an unoccupied building.

Figueroa, who allegedly shot 30-year-old Feder Biotte in the abdomen and set fire to the Temple Court Apartments at 431 NW Third St., near downtown Miami, was arrested by police Monday afternoon after being spotted. he was driving his maroon Honda Accord near the crime scene.

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Police said they found a .36-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol and ammunition in the vehicle. Figueroa, who lives in Apartment 307 in the building he is accused of burning, spent several hours at Miami police headquarters with detectives before he was formally arrested late in the evening, according to police.

He was formally charged with attempted murder, first-degree arson and displaying a firearm during the commission of a crime. Figueroa’s arrest report shows he told police he expected to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Police said Biotte, who was found with a gunshot wound to the abdomen on the sidewalk in front of the building, repeated the number 307 to them in Spanish and was then taken to the hospital. He underwent surgery and, according to the police, his condition is critical.

The intense blaze, which required 126 firefighters to extinguish the stubborn blaze and displaced about 50 people, blanketed downtown Miami in thick smoke for hours, causing havoc during rush hour and forcing some downtown offices to send employees with asthma and other illnesses to work, according to city officials. home.