FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Delray Beach man charged with second-degree murder stemming from an allegation of road rage in Fort Lauderdale in a May 2019 shooting had the charge dismissed because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
Harrison Dacosta, who was 29 at the time of the incident, shot and killed motorcyclist Cerrone Alonso, 40, of Pembroke Pines about 9 p.m. near the intersection of Powerline Road and West Cypress Creek Road.
Judge Daniel A. Casey ruled Friday that Alonso, the motorcyclist, was the aggressor in the situation and Dacosta, whose girlfriend was in the front passenger seat of Dacosta’s Honda Civic, was defending himself and his girlfriend when he pulled his gun out of the glove compartment and shot Alonso, who was banging on the car and had his hand on the door handle when the passenger door opened.
Testimony from two witnesses corroborated that version of events. One witness said Alonso got off his motorcycle and was “ballistic” as he approached the Civic and another witness said Alonso was “pretty mad” and was banging on the Civic so hard “the car was shaking wildly.”
Dacosta’s attorney, Johnny McCray, said his client, who had a concealed weapons permit, acted legally.
“He never pulled the weapon out until the guy started coming toward the door,” McCray said. “He didn’t shoot until the guy opened the door. When he opened the door, my guy shot three times. And that was the case.”
Court documents say Dacosta and his girlfriend, Renata Rocha, who was visiting from Brazil, were driving to her friend’s music studio when Alonso drove directly in front of their car on his motorcycle and cut them off, reduced his speed and looked back.
Alonso then rode away but reappeared on the passenger side of the car soon afterward with a big rock in his hand. He threw the rock, putting a dent in the car, and rode away.
Rocha told Alonso she no longer wanted to go to the music studio, so Dacosta made a U-turn to go the opposite direction. While they were stopped at a red light as the first car in the far left lane, Alonso reappeared in the far right lane. Dacosta wanted to get Alonso’s license plate and report the rock-throwing incident to police so he pulled the car across the others and blocked Alonso. Witnesses said Dacosta could have hit Alonso’s motorcycle if he chose, but that wasn’t Dacosta’s intent.
At that point witnesses said Alonso got off his motorcycle and began hitting the car and windows, starting at the back and working his way to the hood and eventually the passenger door.
Rocha testified she could see anger in Alonso’s eyes and began screaming, “No, no, no, per favor.” Rocha said when the door opened, Dacosta got his gun out of the glove compartment and fired. One witness said Alonso aggressively opened the passenger door while another said he had his hand on the door handle when the door opened but she couldn’t tell whether Alonso opened the door.
McCray, while expressing sympathy for the Alonso family’s loss, said it’s a clear case of a justifiable Stand Your Ground defense.
“With the things they were faced with,” he said, “my client did the only reasonable thing that he could do.”
