Guess The
Bikini Babe
Heatin’ Up In Miami!

Published March 12, 2025 12:30 AM PDT

New police body camera footage shows the moment an officer and first responders discovered Cuban reggaeton singer El Taiger shot inside an SUV in Miami last year.

The 37-year-old El Taiger, whose real name was Jose Manuel Carbajal Zaldivar, had been found suffering from a gunshot wound in the back of an SUV in the area of Northwest 9th Avenue and 17th Street near Jackson Memorial Hospital back on Oct. 3, 2024.

He was taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition and died from his injuries days later, on Oct. 10.

The new footage released Tuesday shows an officer responding and finding the SUV running with El Taiger in the back unresponsive.

A City of Miami ambulance arrives and the crew starts checking the singer out.

“Blood all over his face,” one paramedic says in the video.

Moments later, the paramedics and officer apparently realize he’s been shot.

“It looks like somebody drove him here,” the officer says.

“He either shot himself or…” another voice says in the video.

“Is he breathing?” the first officer asks.

“He’s snoring,” a paramedic responds.

That’s when a second officer opens the driver’s door and starts looking in the SUV.

“Hey, hold on, don’t reach inside here, ok” the first officer says.

“I got to get his ID,” the second officer responds.

“Don’t reach inside here yet, ok. This looks like it might be a crime scene now,” the first officer responds.

The first officer then gets on his radio and appears to call for more units to respond.

“There might be more to this,” he says.

Less than three weeks after El Taiger died from his injuries, a suspect in his killing, Damian Valdez-Galloso, was detained in New York City.

Miami-Dade Corrections

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Miami-Dade Corrections

Valdez-Galloso has since been moved to a Miami-Dade jail and faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted tampering with physical evidence and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the shooting.

According to an arrest affidavit, the singer went to Valdez-Galloso’s Hialeah home early on the morning of Oct. 3.

Police said Valdez-Galloso opened the door and shot El Taiger in the head, in a shocking crime caught on video and obtained by NBC6.

Shocking new surveillance footage shows the fatal shooting of Cuban reggaeton singer El Taiger outside the home of the Hialeah man who’s accused in his murder. NBC6’s Christian Colón reports

Valdez-Galloso then grabbed El Taiger by his ankles, dragged him toward the singer’s SUV, and placed him inside, the affidavit said. Valdez-Galloso then allegedly cleaned up the scene, changed his clothes, and then left in the singer’s vehicle.

Valdez-Galloso, who has claimed he acted in self-defense, was ordered held without bond in early November. His court-appointed attorney has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The Miami Heat were up by 11 over Charlotte with 6:47 left on Monday. They led by 11 over Chicago going into the fourth quarter Saturday. They led 10 over New York midway through the fourth quarter on March 2.

All at home, too.

And all ended up as losses.

College basketball has March Madness. The Heat have March sadness. Blown leads are becoming commonplace for the Heat, who lost 105-102 to the Hornets on Monday night — yet another costly collapse. And now it’s a team simply searching for answers.

“We went through too much this season to let go of the rope now,” Heat captain Bam Adebayo said.

The Heat — who are 9-18 in their past 27 games, a stretch that started with Jimmy Butler III being oft-suspended before eventually traded to Golden State for Andrew Wiggins — have lost a league-high 11 times this season when leading after three quarters, already the third most in any season in franchise history.

And they’ve lost nine games after leading by at least 15 points, three of those coming in a nine-day span that ended Monday.

“In terms of our spirit, we’ll be fine,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We just have to forge ahead. You have to forge. Sometimes you get tested. Sometimes you get tested in a way that you don’t want to be tested in this league. And you can fold the tent, or you just keep on forging and forging and forging. And that’s what our group is going to do.”

The Heat are the first team to lose seven games after holding double-digit fourth-quarter leads since Memphis did it in 2018-19.

“We’ve just got to find a way to get ourselves out of this hole,” guard Tyler Herro said. “This isn’t fun for anybody. It’s a tough time right now. But we’re staying with it. We’ll figure this out.”

This isn’t just a recent trend for Miami. Fourth quarters have been trouble all season. The Heat had a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter at Orlando on Dec. 21 and lost by seven — being outscored 37-8 in the final 12 minutes.

And there was another nine-day span of down-the-stretch disasters in February. The Heat were outscored 39-21 in the fourth quarter of a nine-point loss to Chicago on Feb. 4, 31-9 in a 16-point loss at Brooklyn on Feb. 7 and 32-8 in the fourth quarter of a loss at Oklahoma City on Feb. 12.

“We’ve got a very tough-minded group and that’s what we need right now,” Spoelstra said. “Even some veterans in the locker room, or a veteran coach like myself, you just realize how tough it is to win in this league. It really is. On any given night, it is a challenge. We just have to stay together and figure this out.”

This run of losses in March has even put playoff plans in serious peril. The Heat — who are ninth in the Eastern Conference — will almost certainly have to get through the play-in tournament just to have a chance at getting to the first round of the postseason, where NBA-leading Cleveland or reigning champion Boston probably will be waiting.

“We just have to stay together and use this an opportunity, a growth opportunity to overcome something that sucks,” Spoelstra said. “We’re going to figure this out.”