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(Lake County, Florida) – When a resident of the Raintree Bend Apartment Complex heard a group of people knocking on his apartment door around 3 AM, he was suspicious and opened the door with the security chain still attached.
When the group tried to break into the apartment, the homeowner, fearing for his wife and child, shot at the group through the crack at the doorway, striking one of the suspects and ending the attempted home invasion.
The injured suspect was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
According to the OrlandoSentinel.com, the scene was chaotic, with three of thugs dragging the thug who was shot down the stairs:
The resident, Luis Robles, 29, said he was at home at Raintree Apartments, east of U.S. Highway 27 in Four Corners, when he heard banging on his door a little before 3 a.m. Saturday, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Fred Jones said.
He looked through the peephole, opened the door and a man said, “Hey,” then fired a shot at Robles that missed his head and hit a wall, an arrest report states. Robles returned fire and hit the man, later identified as Aswad Emmanuel Velazquez, 22. He fired more shots as Velazquez tried to get up, according to the report.
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“I have an emergency — someone is shooting in my house,” Robles tells a dispatcher in a 911 call, adding that he didn’t know the assailants.
More shots were fired through the door after Robles closed it, hitting his wife in the foot, the report states. One of the suspects also shot at a neighbor when she opened her door to find out what was going on, Robles told deputies.
One of the suspects dragged Velazquez down the stairs, and all three took him to Florida Hospital Celebration Health, where he was pronounced dead.
Isiah Velazquez, 19 — the brother of Aswad Velazquez — Tareak Ilarreza, 18, and Lawrence Omar Alexis, 22, all of Sanford, were arrested. They were being held without bail late Monday at the Osceola County Jail on charges of murder and burglary.
Alexis also was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Detectives say he is the man who shot at the neighbor.
Authorities have located the other three suspects and are in the midst of conducting interviews to see what charges they may be facing.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, Sgt. Fred Jones, said that the initial investigation supports the conclusion that the homeowner was simply defending his home from a violent attack.
Florida is a Stand-Your-Ground law state.
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