Detectives said no arrests had been made as they reviewed how a gun was fired inside the home.
FLORIDA CITY, FL — A 5-year-old girl died Wednesday after she was shot inside a Florida City home where five people were present, authorities said, leaving homicide detectives to determine who fired the gun and how the child was wounded.
Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office homicide detectives took over the investigation after Florida City police first responded to the home in the 1400 block of Northwest 1st Court shortly before 2 a.m. The girl, identified by relatives as Ja’Nova Parks, was found with a gunshot wound to the torso. Officials said no arrest had been announced, and investigators had not said whether the shooting was accidental, reckless or intentional.
Florida City police officers went to the home after a report of a shooting around 1:55 a.m. Wednesday. When they arrived, they found Ja’Nova badly injured. One responding officer drove the child and her biological mother to Homestead Baptist Hospital as Miami-Dade Fire Rescue was headed to the scene. Fire rescue crews later airlifted the girl to HCA Florida Kendall Trauma Center, where she died despite medical efforts. Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Detective Angel Rodriguez said investigators were still sorting through the early facts. “We don’t know if the child shot herself or if someone else shot her,” Rodriguez said.
The sheriff’s office said the home had five occupants when the shooting happened. Local reports said three adults and two children were inside, including Ja’Nova’s 4-year-old brother. Investigators also said a firearm was found at the residence. Authorities had not released the names of everyone who was in the home, had not said who owned the gun and had not described where the weapon was found. Rodriguez said detectives did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the wider community. The case remained with the sheriff’s homicide bureau, which is standard when a child dies in a shooting and the circumstances are not immediately clear.
Relatives described Ja’Nova as a bright child whose death stunned her family. Her grandmother, Laticha Ellason, said the shooting should not have happened inside the girl’s home. “It makes me angry because nothing like this should be able to happen, especially in your home,” Ellason said. “Carelessness, carelessness.” Ellason said she did not believe Ja’Nova or her brother would knowingly handle a firearm. “My grandkids know that a gun is dangerous,” she said. “Never in a million years I would believe that she would pick up a gun, nor her brother.”
The investigation also brought attention to the girl’s mother, Ashley Hosendove, though authorities said her arrest Wednesday was not tied to the shooting. Officials said Hosendove was arrested on an unrelated disorderly conduct charge connected to an incident from March. Detectives had not announced any charge in Ja’Nova’s death. The separate arrest did not answer the central questions in the homicide investigation, including how the gun became accessible, who was nearest to the child when it fired and whether any adult could face charges tied to the weapon or the child’s death.
The shooting happened in a residential area of Florida City, a small municipality in southern Miami-Dade County near Homestead and the entrance roads toward the Florida Keys. Neighbors described fear and sadness after seeing emergency vehicles and police activity before dawn. Betty Hammond, a neighbor, said the child was far too young to die that way. “That’s just too small to leave this world like that, too early,” Hammond said. She said the area can be rough at times, but the death of a child inside a home felt especially painful. “That is pitiful, very pitiful,” she said.
Police had not released a full timeline of the moments before the gunfire, including where the adults were in the home and whether anyone called 911 immediately after the shot. Investigators were expected to rely on interviews, physical evidence, the recovered firearm and medical findings to determine what happened. The sheriff’s office did not say whether a child welfare agency had been notified, whether the firearm would undergo forensic testing or whether surveillance video from the area had been recovered. Those steps are common in fatal shooting investigations but had not been publicly confirmed in this case.
The death placed Ja’Nova among the youngest victims of gunfire in Miami-Dade County this year and renewed questions around unsecured firearms in homes with children. Authorities did not call the shooting accidental, and they did not rule out other possibilities. For now, the case is being treated as a homicide investigation because a child died from a gunshot wound. In law enforcement terms, that classification does not by itself mean detectives have determined intent. It means investigators are examining a death caused by another person or under circumstances that require criminal review.
By Thursday, officials had not announced an arrest in Ja’Nova’s death or named a suspect. The next major step is expected to be an update from homicide detectives or prosecutors once investigators determine how the gun was fired and whether any criminal charge will be filed.
Author note: Last updated June 11, 2026.