John Jefferson
Left: Luis Damas (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation). Right: Eixchel Berroteran. Inset: Her injured hand after Damas allegedly shot at her (Eixchelb/Instagram).
A Florida man is behind bars after he allegedly shot at his estranged wife and social media influencer stepdaughter.
Luis Damas, 64, is facing charges including attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, burglary and false imprisonment.
Eixchel Berroteran, known to her 4.3 million followers on TikTok and 711,000 followers on Instagram as Eixchelb, recounted the horrifying shooting, saying Damas, who was married to her mother for 13 years before separating about seven months ago, forced his way into their Miami apartment around 10 p.m. Aug. 21 and fired one shot.
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“That night… the worst of my entire life, God gave me another chance. When the shot missed by CENTIMETERS… I was stunned, in shock and afraid to think that those would be my last moments of life,” she wrote in Spanish on her Instagram page.
A probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime does not name Berroteran but describes the events that transpired which closely match her account. Damas’ wife told cops she was hanging out with a friend when she heard a knock on the door. She looked through the peephole and saw Damas standing outside. She opened the door and asked Damas why he was there and told him she would call him later. A little while later she walked her friend out of the apartment and Damas was still there, the affidavit said. She and Damas began arguing.
He allegedly wanted to know where Berroteran was located and said that she “was the reason they could not be together.” Cops say Damas pushed his estranged wife into the apartment and pulled out a gun. Damas then allegedly went to Berroteran’s bedroom and pointed a gun at her. She jumped off her bed and tried to hide under the mattress.
“That’s when the defendant stated, ‘I’m going to kill you’ and fired one shot,” cops wrote.
Damas’ wife tackled him to try to take the gun away, cops said. Berroteran said in her post that she jumped in to help, saying the “love we have for each other gave us the strength to control the situation.” Damas started biting his wife and she grabbed a wine bottle to hit him, the affidavit said. The mother and daughter were able to calm Damas down enough to put his gun away, but he allegedly held his wife by the hair and forced her to stay on the couch.
He then made his wife clean up the scene, according to the affidavit. After throwing away evidence, she walked him out the door and tried to reassure him by telling him she would not call the cops. She later told police that she did not immediately call 911 because he threatened them that if she did so he would “have them killed by the hitmen he knew,” the affidavit said. They called the police the next day after going to the hospital to treat Berroteran’s injuries.
She posted pictures to social media of her bloodied hand and bruises throughout her body.
“There are no words to describe the terror, pain, trauma, anxiety and panic attacks that this has caused us,” she wrote. “Only God knows why I am still here and I ask him to give me the strength to move forward and that at some point I can heal my heart.”
Cops took Damas to jail where he remains without bond.
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