In a heartbreaking case that left a mother dead and a family grieving, a 16-year-old Homestead boy has been charged as an adult; Eli Zachary Shinhoster is now facing adult charges for allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend’s mother, Eulalia Gonzalez.
On June 27, Gonzalez was shot and killed outside her home. According to the arrest report, Shinhoster had taken a rideshare to the house, where he shot Gonzalez while she was holding her infant daughter.
According to the police, Shinhoster was moved to the Metro West Detention Center after being detained as a minor following his arrest on July 1.
A series of terrifying events are revealed in the circumstances leading up to the violent act. According to the police, as cited by Local 10 News, Shoster is accused of acting on a plan designed to cause harm as a twisted retribution for the end of his relationship.
He is accused of targeting Gonzalez after her daughter ended a nine-month-long relationship with him. Before the shooting, he is also said to have threatened his ex-girlfriend, saying, “if she was not with him, she could not be with anyone else.”
A GoFundMe page has been created in an act of community solidarity to help Gonzalez’s family with burial costs and legal bills while they deal with this horrible incident that left them without a mother and their youngest member just missing damage.
Shinhoster is still being held without bond while the legal system moves forward with charging him with second-degree murder. Additional information from the arrest report shows that Shinhoster told police that he had ordered another rideshare driver to leave the scene and had re-concealed the pistol in his waistband after the incident; witnesses claimed to have heard him threaten the victim just prior to firing the fatal shot.
Gonzalez, 38, a mother of four, was discovered unconscious on top of her obliging child. She was taken by helicopter to Jackson South Medical Center, where she eventually passed away from her wounds. As NBC Miami points out, the decision to charge the teenager with first-degree murder as an adult highlights the seriousness of the crime that was committed in a Homestead neighborhood that is still in shock from the violence.