Liberty City activist Dwight Wells, known for his nurturing spirit, dies at 40
Nurturing others had been in Dwight Wells’ nature since he was a young boy.
When he was 11, Wells would go to the gas station, hustle and get money, and would come home with a big bag of chicken wings, rice, and pork and beans, his mother Mary Brown recalled.
“I used to take in homeless people, and he said, ‘Momma, make sure everybody eat,’” she told the Miami Herald.
Wells’ death on Friday outside his Liberty City restaurant Winning and Won Turkey Legs has left his loved ones and those that knew him in his community reeling. Wells was shot around 9:20 p.m. by an assailant that still has not been apprehended, according to police. He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he later died. Known in the neighborhood as a man who was able to overcome his troubled past, Wells poured his love and energy back into Liberty City, establishing programs and events for the local youth to help guide them.
Born and raised in Liberty City, Wells was affectionately called “Screamer” and was described by Brown as a loving, affectionate son. The youngest of four, Wells was the one Brown said she depended on the most.
“He was a son that a mother needed,” she said. “He helped me with my household chores, groceries, he would call an Uber for me. I was so proud of him.”
Wells, a 2004 graduate of Miami Northwestern Senior High School, began his activist work after serving a 10-year prison sentence. He was convicted of gunning down a man down in Liberty Square after taking a plea deal. A March 2007 close-out memo for Wells’ conviction described a case marked by limited evidence and witnesses unwilling to testify. His family maintains his innocence.
Wells turned his life around and started a path of countless sacrifices to give back to his community.
Wells founded Bikes Up, Gunz Down, a nonprofit organization that aims to deter youth from gun violence by hosting large ride-outs for the youth on ATVs and dirt bikes during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The event was controversial because hundreds of participants would take over entire streets, with some performing dangerous stunts.
Brown said Wells started the organization after a friend of his lost a daughter due to gun violence.
Community activist Valencia Gunder said she met Wells in 2015 at a community event she was hosting. “We had all this leftover food that day after feeding the community, and he was like, ‘yo, come in the Pork & Beans projects with me,’” she recalled. “We just passed the rest of this food out.”
Gunder said Wells visited her family and supported them when her goddaughter, 8-year-old Jada Page was shot and killed. “I was just so grateful that he just was in our corner, and he was public about it,” she said.
A few months before Page’s death, 6-year-old King Carter was killed. Wells supported his childhood friend Santonio Carter in the loss of his son, and helped him and his wife found the King Carter Foundation.
“He really lifted us up during the passing of our son,” said Carter, who described Wells as energetic and popular when the two were students at Brownsville Middle School. “He held us up and guided us all the way to like to this present point, from the structure of our nonprofit organization. He just was here for us.”
“He always wanted to bring life and uplift the community and whoever was close to him,” Carter said. “That’s just who he was.”
His sister Trowanna Barron said Wells was repeatedly called upon to help friends and family create businesses and nonprofits. “He would go to them, and he would stay there and build a brand, and then he’ll say, ‘it’s time for me to move on to the next one,’” she said. “Like an angel.”
Wells was also known for organizing clean-up efforts at cemeteries in historically Black neighborhoods, including Lincoln Memorial Park in Brownsville. The cemetery is the final resting place of many prominent Black activists and community leaders, such as Dana A. Dorsey, Miami’s first Black millionaire.
Those close to Wells described him as a deeply spiritual man who was always looking for ways to help others, especially children.
James “Munch” Mungin II, another community activist, said Wells’ loss hurts the youth he helped mentor the most. “You got a lot of kids that’s going to be misguided. You have to think about how many kids he guided off the streets and let them know, ‘hey, man, just ride a bike, clear your mind,’” he said. “That’s somebody who really had a hand on the youth.”
Wells was also an entrepreneur who invested in his community, opening Winning And Won Turkey Legs, a restaurant he was deeply proud of, in his neighborhood. “He loved to cook, and he did that cooking with those turkey legs and those ribs,” Brown said. “He liked serving people, too.”
Brown says Wells will always be remembered by the people he helped.
“His legacy is loving people, building people’s business up, helping people, staying positive about things.”
A vigil and balloon release will be held in Dwight Wells honor at 7 p.m. Oct. 16 at 5090 NW 17th Ave.
Miami Herald reporter Devoun Cetoute contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 1:42 PM.
