A 39-year-old Cuban who had arrived earlier this year with humanitarian parole to the U.S. died this week after being shot multiple times randomly by a 14-year-old teenager who stole a gun from his father in the city of St. Petersburg, in Pinellas County, Florida.
A police statement reveals that on July 25, at approximately 10:52 a.m., officers responded to the intersection of 27th Street North and 59th Avenue North in the aforementioned city in western Florida, after receiving reports of gunfire and a woman lying in the street.
When the agents arrived at the scene, they found the victim, Leslie Torres Fernández, facedown on the street with apparent bullet wounds in the upper part of the body.
The agents tried to save her life until the fire department arrived and transported her to the hospital. However, the Cuban was declared dead shortly after.
During the investigation, detectives identified the suspect as Jaevion Darrell Harvey, 14 years old, who was captured on security cameras fleeing the area on his bicycle after the shooting.
On Friday, authorities executed a search warrant at Harvey's residence, located near where the incident occurred.
During the search warrant, detectives located a firearm that was confirmed to have been used during the shooting, as well as many other firearms, numerous rounds of ammunition, 3.8 kilograms of cocaine, 53 grams of crack, 3 grams of MDMA, and $184,964 in US currency.
When the detectives interviewed Harvey, he confessed to having randomly shot Leslie Torres Fernández.
According to the crime reporter, Niover Licea, the woman was originally from the municipality of Candelaria, in the province of Artemisa, and had arrived in the United States in January of this year thanks to the humanitarian parole program.
During the investigations, the teenager informed detectives that he took the firearm from his father’s bedroom, Jarvis Armand Spencer, 37 years old.
The father of the minor has an extensive criminal record that includes 15 convictions for serious crimes, while his son now faces a charge of first-degree murder.
Authorities announced the arrest of the suspects and confirmed the minor's confession.
The adolescent's father did not cooperate with the detectives and was arrested and charged with seven counts of illegal possession of a firearm, one count of illegal possession of ammunition, possession of a firearm with an altered serial number, armed trafficking of crack, armed trafficking of powdered cocaine, and grand theft of a firearm.
At the time of closing this note, no further details have been known about the tragic event that abruptly cut short the dreams of a newly emigrated Cuban woman.
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