{"id":95638,"date":"2025-12-25T13:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T13:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/95638\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T13:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T13:34:10","slug":"a-christmas-remembrance-of-kinard-shirley-and-171-others-who-died-in-miamis-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/95638\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas remembrance of Kinard Shirley and 171 others who died in Miami’s streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Attendees at last Friday\u2019s vigil in downtown Miami to remember 172 homeless people who died this year raised candles and watched the release of dozens of white doves to commemorate them. Photo: Godfrey Mead for the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.<\/p>\n

By Noreen Marcus, FloridaBulldog.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Kinard Shirley was one of 172 homeless people who died this year in Miami. He wasn\u2019t somebody\u2019s father or spouse, but he was a brother and a son.<\/p>\n

Shirley, 37, was a day laborer at a downtown construction site near North Miami Avenue and NW 6th Street. It\u2019s an intersection of history, transportation and commerce \u2013 the venerable Freedom Tower, the sleek MiamiCentral train station, and the upscale restaurants and shops that go with gentrification.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Shirley and his fellow laborer Marshall Ragsdale, 66, were fatally attacked with a metal pipe at about 5:45 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 16. A male-and-female couple also were bludgeoned; the woman was critically injured, but both survived.<\/p>\n

Brenton Clarke, 36, a recent transplant from Long Island, New York, remains jailed without bond on first-degree murder, attempted murder and armed robbery charges, the last for allegedly fleeing with a victim\u2019s meager belongings, according to state records.<\/p>\n

The rampage briefly captured media attention. The names Kinard Shirley and Marshall Ragsdale were added to a list of fatalities \u2013 almost all unknown to the public \u2013\u00a0 that the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust<\/a> compiles year after year after year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unconscionable,\u201d said Ron Book, the longtime Homeless Trust chairman. \u201cAs long as there are people who call the streets their home, there will be senseless attacks. Bad actors prey on the vulnerable, and there is no one more vulnerable than a person sleeping on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Friday the Homeless Trust joined Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, advocacy groups and family and friends of the departed for an annual vigil at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, about a half-mile from the sidewalks where Shirley and Ragsdale died.<\/p>\n

\"KinardKinard Shirley<\/p>\n

For more than 13 minutes, all 172 names printed on a board held by Leonel Fragel, a solemn man wearing a white shirt and white gloves, were read aloud. The dead, as young as 19 and up to 99 years old, included four U.S. military veterans and 26 victims of opioid addiction, WLRN reported.<\/p>\n

There were speakers and uniformed police officers bearing flags in formation. Community volunteer Alexandria Arango sang two songs\u00a0for the crowd:\u00a0\u201cRise Up!\u201d by Andra Day and \u201cMissing You\u201d by Brandy.<\/p>\n

The vigil ended with Levine Cava, Kinard Shirley\u2019s mother \u2013 Charlotte Burnett \u2013 and others releasing dozens of white doves, traditional symbols of purity, peace and freedom from earthbound sorrows.<\/p>\n

A SON AND BIG BROTHER<\/p>\n

Shirley\u2019s brother, Cornelius Burnett, a warehouse worker who lives in Fort Lauderdale, attended the memorial. Florida Bulldog interviewed him afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to know who my brother and Marshall [Ragsdale] are so people can understand this is a human being, not some random person on the street, not another number or statistic,\u201d Burnett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnow who these people are and get some insight into who these people are, don\u2019t turn a blind eye on people who are on the streets. I knew a lot of them growing up. I never turn away or ignore somebody. I always try to help someone in need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Burnett said he and Shirley were close growing up. Kinard was the eldest of 13 siblings, many of whom lived with or near his father in Jacksonville; Cornelius was two years younger and they shared a bedroom.<\/p>\n

Kinard, Cornelius and two other siblings lived with their mother Charlotte Burnett. Kinard visited Jacksonville, but his early years were spent mostly in Perrine in South Miami-Dade County. He was graduated from Miami Palmetto High School and got some training in plumbing and related fields at a job corps program.<\/p>\n

Family members described Kinard Shirley as loving fishing, playing football and joking around. He was always a good son and a caring older brother, Burnett said.<\/p>\n

When his sister\u2019s TV broke, he ran out and bought her a new one. \u201cHe used to cut mom\u2019s yard without her asking. He\u2019d come over and if the grass needed maintenance he\u2019d do it without asking,\u201d Burnett said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Alexandria Arango<\/p>\n

When their mother moved to Miami Gardens in North Miami-Dade, Shirley joined her and lived there until his late 20s. Then he moved out and took jobs installing tubs and toilets at building projects. He would turn up at a labor agency early in the morning, get a ticket, go wherever the work was that day and then seek some kind of makeshift shelter nearby, his relatives said.<\/p>\n

\u2018TO ME, HE WAS QUIET\u2019<\/p>\n

Burnett couldn\u2019t explain why Kinard Shirley chose to live on the streets. \u201cI have no idea,\u201d he said as if expressing an old frustration. His brother didn\u2019t have much money but he had options \u2013 stay with their mother, move in with Burnett, go somewhere else with a roof and four walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to accomplish things on his own,\u201d Burnett said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why he was determined to do things without anybody\u2019s help but that was his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts say most homeless people cling to a false sense of independence and make bad decisions because they\u2019re mentally ill and\/or drug-addicted. Society still feels the impact of the 1970s \u201cdeinstitutionalization\u201d movement that closed mental-health facilities and returned patients to communities where they were supposed to be helped but instead were largely ignored or jailed.<\/p>\n

Burnett doesn\u2019t label his brother: \u201cTo me, he was quiet. If he knew you, he\u2019d speak to you, he\u2019d be more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year 2025 was an especially bad time to be homeless in America and the forecast for 2026 isn\u2019t any better. The federal government\u2019s existing approach to homelessness is under attack by the Trump administration, which last month issued new rules that could cut $3.9 billion in awards to community organizations for long-term housing programs, The New York Times reported.<\/p>\n

Rhode Island U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy recently blocked the sudden rule change that opponents say requires congressional action. But her ruling is temporary, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development argued the order is moot because the agency plans to issue another batch of rules that must be judged separately.<\/p>\n

Book and his allies aren\u2019t about to give up on ending homelessness in Miami-Dade, where the Homeless Trust is funded primarily by the county\u2019s 1 percent food and beverage tax. Lives are at stake.<\/p>\n

\u201cKinard and Marshall remind me of why we do what we do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe must continue to fight for the rights of people to have access to stable housing. That\u2019s the only way stories like these will become a thing of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"Print
\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attendees at last Friday\u2019s vigil in downtown Miami to remember 172 homeless people who died this year raised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[50873,50874,50875,50876,588,50877,225,227,226,50878,50879,50880,50881,47397,47399,4325],"class_list":["post-95638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-alexandria-arango","tag-brenton-clarke","tag-charlotte-burnett","tag-cornelius-burnett","tag-daniella-levine-cava","tag-department-of-housing-and-urban-development","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-kinard-shirley","tag-leonel-fragel","tag-marshall-ragsdale","tag-mary-s-mcelroy","tag-miami-dade-county-homeless-trust","tag-ron-book","tag-vigil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}