4 January 9-15, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ MIAMI MAKE IT STOP YANELIZ MUNGUIA, AGE 10, WAS KILLED BY CELEBRATORY GUNFIRE ON NEW YEAR’S EVE. BY ALEX DELUCA Y aneliz Munguia was celebrat- ing New Year’s Eve with her family outside their Miami home, waving sparklers and welcoming 2025, when she suddenly collapsed. Around 12:04 a.m., just minutes after the clock struck midnight, police say the 10-year- old fell to the ground outside her family’s home in Allapattah. Her parents rushed to check her for injuries before they quickly re- alized she’d been shot in the head. “All of a sudden, she fell down, and her fa- ther got nearby,” Ramon Valdizon, Munguia’s grandfather, told WSVN 7News. “And all of a sudden, he started crying.” According to the Miami-Dade Police De- partment (MDPD), Munguia was hit by a stray bullet fired into the air “from an un- known location by an unknown subject” — what police have described as “celebratory gunfire.” Police say Munguia was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where she was pronounced dead. She had reportedly just celebrated her tenth birthday on December 26. Munguia wasn’t the only casualty caused by a stray bullet this past New Year’s Day. Mere minutes before her death, a 56-year-old woman was struck and killed by what police described as “celebratory gunfire” a few hours north in Kissimmee. In Fort Lauder- dale, 50-year-old Angel Nunes, who had just surprised his partner with a visit to his pool deck to ring in the new year, died in his arms soon after. He was pronounced dead after ar- riving at Broward Health Medical Center. The incidents come after increasingly lax gun laws in the Sunshine State following the July 2023 implementation of HB 543, which eliminated the need for individuals to com- plete a firearms training course and pass a background check before carrying their guns in public spaces. Miami-Dade police are asking anyone with information about the incident to come forward. “This heartbreaking incident serves as a devastating reminder that what goes up must come down,” MDPD wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Bullets fired into the air can take innocent lives.” Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava also posted a brief statement about the inci- dent on X. “Our hearts are with the family mourning the loss of their beloved 10-year-old, whose life was tragically cut short by reckless gun- fire,” Cava wrote in a post. “Let us unite to prevent further senseless acts.” Despite annual reminders from police not to shoot guns into the air, stray bullets have frequently injured and killed people during holiday celebrations in Florida. During Fourth of July celebrations in 2019, a 2-month-old baby was struck by celebratory gunfire. Six months later, on New Year’s Eve, a woman in downtown Delray Beach was hit in the leg by a stray bullet. As a woman watched fireworks with her 13-year-old daughter in West Palm Beach on July 4, 2022, she was suddenly struck by gunfire. Another woman was hit in the face by a stray bullet, presumed to be celebratory gunfire, on New Year’s Eve in 2022 in Lake Mary. [email protected] | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS Yaneliz Munguia, a 10-year-old from Miami, was killed after being struck by celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve. Screenshot via WPLG Local 10/YouTube ▼ EVERYWHERE X, RATED ALL THE LITTLE LEGISLATORS GO TWEET, TWEET, TWEET. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN I t was a busy year for U.S. politicians. They have to hobnob at the Capitol (occa- sionally across party lines) to ensure the country functions or to score political points. But in 2024, they had another responsibility: making good use of their Twitter fingers. This year, U.S. lawmakers tweeted 628,998 times, according to Quorum, a D.C.-based public affairs company. Florida’s lawmakers, in particular, were quite active in the X-sphere (AKA the Twitter- sphere). U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who represents parts of Clearwater and St. Petersburg, was the most active Florida lawmaker on X in 2024, with 5,977 tweets. Sen. Rick Scott was not too far behind, with 5,624 tweets of his own. Orlando-based Rep. Maxwell Frost was the lone Democrat to crack the list of the top 20 most active legislators on X, with 3,983 tweets. U.S. Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, for his part, tweeted 3,230 times. On that note, a selection of what the Sun- shine State’s two U.S. senators tweeted about in 2024: Rick Scott Evidently, Scott has some beef with Chinese garlic. “If the garlic is fine, why is the CCP fighting my request for U.S. officials to investigate if it’s grown in sewage?” Scott wrote on December 14. This is EXACTLY why I fought to ban Chinese garlic from being sold in grocery stores on U.S. military bases. You can’t trust ANYTHING made in Communist China.” He also went after parrots. “We are drowning in $36 TRILLION of debt, but the federal government thought it was a great idea to spend $690K on studying romance between parrots???” he tweeted. “This is a dis- graceful waste of YOUR TAX DOLLARS!” And, of course, he had to take a jab at pro- nouns. “It’s time for a president who will prioritize making our military a lethal machine over worry- ing about changing pronouns,” Scott tweeted. Marco Rubio The Secretary of State nominee had one particu- lar topic on his mind: China. He mentioned it 313 times this year, according to Quorum. “China wants to dominate the global supply chain and be the sole supplier of critical goods to other countries. If this happens, there will be consequences felt everywhere. This is ‘China Stock 2.0.’” And another China tweet, for good measure: “Communist China’s coercive influence in our region is a threat to our national security inter- ests and must be countered. #ExposingTheCCP,” Rubio wrote. But wait, there’s more! “Forced labor. Counterfeit goods. Ties to Communist China,” Rubio tweeted. “And the Biden-Harris Admin still hasn’t investigated Temu.” Sorry, it is really difficult to find tweets that aren’t related to China :/. “CATL battery company has deep ties to Communist China. Our country shouldn’t install these batteries anywhere in our nation because of the national security threat it poses,” he said. “With @RepMoolenaar, urged @DeptofDefense to blacklist CATL.” On the rare occa- sion that he wasn’t tweeting about China, Rubio was going off about illegal immi- grants. “The Biden-Harris Administration contin- ues releasing violent illegal immigrants into our streets and into our communities,” Rubio tweeted in August. Top Five Most Active Legislators on X Texas Republican politicians Rep. Chip Roy and Sen. Ted Cruz were chronically online in 2024. Roy came out on top with 9,799 tweets, an average of 26 a day, while Cruz came in second with 9,056 tweets, averaging 24 daily. Nebraska-based Rep. Don Bacon, New York- based Rep. Claudia Tenney, and South Carolina-based Rep. Nancy Mace rounded out the top five. [email protected] THIS YEAR, U.S. LAWMAKERS TWEETED 628,998 TIMES, ACCORDING TO QUORUM. Rick Scott had a lot to say on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, over the last year. Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr
