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Miami-Dade police investigate a crime scene at the Lakes of the Meadow development in West Kendall, Florida, on Wednesday, February 20, 2013. Suspected marijuana growers engaged police in a shootout, and their home wound up in flames. Police have a suspect in custody and one is believed to have died in a suicide. (Roberto Koltun/El Nuevo Herald/MCT)

Shootout leaves chaos, carnage behind

MIAMI--When Doris Corveas' husband called to say he was stuck in a road block near their West Kendall home, she could barely hear him over the sound of circling helicopters.

She stepped outside to take a look.

What she saw was the aftermath of a violent shootout between police and suspected marijuana growers in the Lakes of the Meadow development, which had left a burning home, a dead body inside and a neighborhood in chaos.

Within 18 hours, police had arrested a suspect who fled the home, and said a body found hanging 10 blocks away was a third man involved in the shootout.

Police identified the man arrested as Brian Kelly Howell, 29. The body found hanging in an apparent suicide was Dell Peter DiGiovanni, 50.

Police said they were still looking for a third suspect, Michael Steven DiGiovanni, 27. As of Wednesday evening, they had not identified the body found in the charred home.

Investigators offered few details of the narcotics investigation that drew them to the West Kendall neighborhood of pink and yellow stucco homes with neatly manicured front lawns.

The three suspected marijuana growers didn't appear to have a major criminal background -- just a few traffic infractions in Virginia and Florida.

The men had lived in the rented, red-roofed house for several years. They mainly kept to themselves, and didn't try to fit in, neighbors said.

"It was little things you notice that were off," said one resident who said she lived in the area for more than 20 years and did not want to be identified.

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