The South Florida community continues to show an outpouring of support for two fallen officers who were killed while on duty.

On Thursday morning, Miami-Dade Police officers Roger Castillo, 41, and Amanda Haworth, 44, were trying to execute a warrant at a Miami home. According to police, 22-year-old Johnny Simms shot and killed the officers. Castillo died at the scene. Haworth was rushed into surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she later died. Simms also died in the shootout.

Friday night, a long police procession accompanied the bodies of the Miami-Dade Police officers as their bodies were moved from the medical examiner’s office to Memorial Gardens Funeral Home in Miami Lakes.

The local community has since begun to pay tribute to the lives of Castillo and Haworth. Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado attended a tribute in honor of the officers, Saturday morning. “We must support law enforcement, and we will support law enforcement in their fight against crime,” the mayor said.

Broward Crime Stoppers and i95billboard.com joined forces to put up an electronic billboard off Interstate 95 in Pembroke Park, which now displays the officers’ pictures and serves as a memorial to their lives.

Meanwhile, the officers’ families and their fellow officers continue to grieve. “People are truly, honestly brokenhearted by it,” said Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus, “and they’re brokenhearted by the fact that they know there are kids left behind in all this.”

On Sunday evening, a viewing will be held for the officers’ friends and family at Memorial Gardens Funeral Home.

Interstate 95 northbound will be closed for two hours starting at 12:30 p.m. Monday for the funeral procession of two slain Miami-Dade police officers.

The viewing for officer Roger Castillo will be at 7 p.m. Sunday at Vista Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home in Miami Lakes. The viewing for officer Amanda Haworth has not been set.

A memorial service for both will be 11 a.m. Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Funeral services will also be Monday, but the time and venue are still being arranged.

All northbound lanes, including the Sunpass express lanes, will be closed Monday from Interstate 395 to Northwest 119th Street, said Rory Santana, a senior Florida Department of Transportation official in Miami.

The information will be flashed on electronic signs along I-95 through the weekend. Traffic will be detoured, Santana said.

People who once knew the man accused of shooting and killing two Miami-Dade police officers called him a threat in the community.

“I think Johnny wanted to protect his family, and that Johnny was hopeless. I know for a fact there are many young men in this area that are,” said Janita Holmes.

Simms’ criminal past dates back to 2005 and his rap sheet includes: cocaine possession and distribution, grand theft auto, resisting arrest, armed robbery and the latest crime, murder.

His body was marked with tattoos that paid tribute to the life of a thug. The tattoos included the word “savage”, as well as the image of an AK-47. He also had a tattoo that read “10-20-life,” a reference to Florida’s mandatory sentencing for those who use guns in violent crimes.

When word got out of Simms’ death, according to people in Overtown, many felt relieved about his death. They said many were scared of him. “He was a threat,” said one man who wished to remain anonymous. “People were scared of him. They were terrified.”

People who knew him said he was not planning on going back to jail.

(Source: WSVN / Miami Herald)