Dramatic new video has surfaced of a hostage situation earlier this week in Florida, where an escaped convict held people at knifepoint in a Miami Beach store.
The footage, obtained by WPLG-TV, shows 29-year-old Darien Young threatening a woman and her mother at a Victoria’s Secret moments after he was accused of shoplifting lingerie around 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Young appeared to be clutching the woman’s neck while ducking behind a checkout counter. Meanwhile, the woman’s mother could be seen behind them with her hands together, apparently praying.
“I’m gonna kill her, I’m gonna kill her, don’t make me hurt her, don’t make me hurt her,” Young yelled repeatedly, according one witness who spoke with the television station.
An officer at the scene tried to engage with Young, but he was shaking his head and uttering “no” in the video.
“Put it down man, please put it down,” the officer can be heard saying.
Young then let the mother go but still held onto her daughter before the officer shot him. He was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he died hours later.
The mother and daughter were not harmed physically.
Shanell Santiago, who works near the store, said she heard the gunshots.
“I heard the sound. I thought I was mesmerized a little bit,” Santiago told NBC Miami. “I was like, maybe it’s in my head right now. I didn’t have music on. So it was clear as day.”
NBC Miami also obtained video showing officers running from storefront to storefront evacuating shops.
Authorities later determined that Young had escaped from a minimum-security facility in New Hampshire a week before the incident.
In a press release, the New Hampshire Department of Corrections said it determined Young had escaped the Calumet House Transitional Housing Unit, about 20 miles south of Concord, New Hampshire, on or around July 21.
Young had been serving time after being convicted of drug charges, burglary, receiving stolen evidence and falsifying physical evidence.
According to the DOC, Young would have been eligible parole starting Monday but could have been required to remain in custody until January 31, 2028.
It was not clear why Young was in South Florida or how he got there.
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[Feature Photo: Darien Young/New Hampshire Department of Corrections]
