The killing of Colorado tourist Dustin Wakefield unfolded in one of Miami Beach’s busiest corridors.
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A restaurant patio on Ocean Drive became the center of a murder case that is now moving toward sentencing after Tamarius Blair Davis admitted killing Colorado tourist Dustin Wakefield during an outdoor family dinner there.
The case drew attention because the shooting broke into one of Miami Beach’s most visible tourist corridors and involved a child seated with his parents at dinner. Davis, 27, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and child abuse. The remaining court issue is how Judge Laura Stuzin will punish him after reviewing a pre-sentence investigation. Wakefield was killed while shielding his 1-year-old son.
Ocean Drive is built around crowds, with sidewalk tables, hotel entrances, beach traffic and Art Deco buildings sharing the same narrow public space. La Cerveceria de Barrio sits at 1412 Ocean Drive, in the middle of that setting. On Aug. 24, 2021, the restaurant patio was active shortly before 6:30 p.m. when police said Davis approached with a gun. The layout meant the shooting was not hidden from the street. Diners, workers, pedestrians and hotel guests were close enough to hear screams, see people scatter and watch police move into a block usually associated with visitors and nightlife. The public location also meant the violence had many witnesses and immediate video, giving investigators more than one kind of record. What began as a family meal quickly became a scene of police tape, emergency response and frightened tourists. The case has remained tied to that setting because the shooting cut through a place designed for open dining and public movement.
Wakefield, 21, had traveled from Castle Rock, Colorado, with his wife, Karina Wakefield, and their 1-year-old son, Eli. Police said Davis, then 22 and from Norcross, Georgia, did not know them. Investigators said he randomly chose Wakefield after approaching the patio. That absence of a known dispute shaped the public shock around the case. The family had not gone to the restaurant for any confrontation; they were eating in an open tourist area when a stranger with a gun turned toward their table. The vacation context mattered because it showed how little warning the family had before the attack. Wakefield and his wife had brought their child to South Florida from Colorado, and the restaurant patio was part of a public trip rather than a private meeting. Investigators have not described any argument, threat or earlier encounter between Wakefield and Davis, making the random nature of the attack central to the case.
The child’s presence changed the meaning of the encounter. Police said Davis pointed the firearm toward Eli before Wakefield moved between his son and the gun. Karina Wakefield later said she heard her husband plead, “Please, I have a son. He’s just a boy.” Other accounts said Wakefield told Davis not to shoot his son because the child was only a baby. Police said Davis then fired, killing Wakefield in front of his family. Relatives have said the final act showed Wakefield’s instinct as a father and saved Eli’s life. The account has been repeated by relatives because it explains the movement that preceded the fatal shot. Wakefield did not know Davis, according to police, yet he moved toward the danger when the gun turned toward his child. The child abuse charge later reflected that threat to Eli, while the murder charge reflected the cost of Wakefield’s response. The two counts are linked by the same seconds on the patio.
The scene widened beyond the patio after the first shots. Police said Davis fired toward another man near the entrance of the Winter Haven hotel, but the man was not hit. A bystander video showed a man with a gun pacing near Ocean Drive while people nearby reacted in fear. Witnesses described panic and confusion, and one account said Davis appeared to celebrate near Wakefield’s body. The video and witness statements became important because they placed the violence across the sidewalk, the hotel entrance and the restaurant frontage. The second shooting allegation also showed that the danger did not end with Wakefield’s family. Police said the man near the hotel entrance escaped injury, but the shot toward him became the basis for the attempted murder count. People who were not part of the family dinner were pulled into the case as witnesses or potential victims, broadening the impact of the episode beyond one restaurant table.
Officers took Davis into custody soon after the shooting, and public accounts said he surrendered in a nearby alley. Body camera footage later showed him admitting involvement to officers, according to local reports. Police also said Davis told investigators he had taken mushrooms and felt empowered. His father later said Davis had traveled to Miami Beach with friends and had no known history of trouble or mental health problems. Those details gave the case a strange public profile, but prosecutors still treated it as a homicide, an attempted homicide and an offense against a child. The mushroom statement drew attention because it offered one explanation for Davis’ conduct without fully explaining it. Police still described the attack as random, and no record made public has shown that Wakefield caused or provoked the shooting. The arrest and body camera accounts instead placed Davis in the center of a fast-moving public attack that officers ended with his capture near the scene.
The street returned to business long before the court case reached a plea. Davis remained jailed without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center while the file moved through Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Wakefield’s family questioned the long wait, and Karina Wakefield said in 2025 that the lack of resolution made her feel the system had failed them. The contrast was stark: the restaurant corridor reopened to tourists, but the family remained fixed to a criminal process that had not yet produced a conviction. The delay became part of the family’s story. Each court setting, reset or unresolved date kept the case alive without giving them a sentence or final acknowledgment of guilt. By the time Davis pleaded guilty, Eli had grown from a baby into a child. The street where his father died had moved on, but the family’s legal wait had continued year after year.
Davis’ plea changed that posture. In court, Stuzin asked whether he was prepared to plead guilty and wait for a pre-sentence investigation before sentencing. “Yes, ma’am,” Davis said. The plea covered the fatal shooting of Wakefield, the gunfire toward the second man and the danger to Eli. It also removed the need for jurors to hear the evidence and decide guilt, leaving Stuzin to determine the sentence after hearing from both sides and reviewing the report. The plea was not described as a deal for a specific sentence, which gives the judge a central role in the next stage. Prosecutors can press the seriousness of the public attack, the child’s danger and the family’s loss. The defense can offer mitigation and information from the pre-sentence report. Davis could receive a long prison sentence, including the possibility of life.
Wakefield’s family has framed him as more than a victim at a famous address. Lora Wakefield, his mother, said she was relieved to see movement after years of waiting and said, “Taking a life is not OK.” Matt Wakefield, his father, described him as loving to his wife, his son and his family. Relatives said he was a musician and a person of faith. Their account keeps returning to the same point: Wakefield died because he placed himself between Davis and Eli. Their comments turned the focus from the famous street back to the man who died there. Family members have said Eli should know his father protected him. The guilty plea supported that account by accepting responsibility for the charges, but it did not replace the years Wakefield’s wife, son, parents and relatives have lived without him.
Ocean Drive has returned to its usual rhythm of diners, hotel guests and beach crowds, but the case has not fully left the block where Wakefield died. The next court ruling will decide Davis’ punishment for a shooting that turned a public dinner scene into a homicide case.
Author note: Last updated June 17, 2026.