According to Florida law enforcement, three teenagers have been arrested in connection with a surprise attack in which a woman was severely beaten, pistol-whipped, and shot at.
Nawrkin Nawlyn Rivas De Los Santos, 19, and Lyrick Garcia, 19, were arrested earlier this week on charges of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, police said Thursday.
Prior to that, on Tuesday, police announced the arrest of Valerie Lisette Gonzalez, 19, who is charged with one count of first-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and illegal firearm discharge.
According to a press release from the Town of Davie Police Department, on June 22, all three defendants went to the victim’s residence on South West 39th Court in Davie, a large city and suburb in the Fort Lauderdale metro area.
Officers responded to reports of a shooting and interviewed the victim, who stated that she had recently received an Instagram message from someone she knew who “advised he was in the area and asked if she wanted to get something to eat,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by Law&Crime.
According to police, the victim responded that she wanted to go out for food and waited until a man arrived at her home on foot. The man then allegedly told the victim that he had parked nearby and persuaded her to walk down to his “light colored four door sedan,” police say.
According to the warrant, the victim thought the man “was going to open the car door for her” so they could go get some food together. Instead, she discovered another man inside wearing a hoodie and ski mask. The second man jumped out and hit her “in the mouth with a fist.”
The victim stated that the beating continued for some time, with the second man hitting her in the head and face with his fists, causing injuries to her lip, face, and neck, according to law enforcement.
Then, a woman emerged from the back of the car, also wearing a hoodie and ski mask, but who the victim recognized as Gonzalez based on her voice and previous interactions, according to police.
Gonzalez allegedly asked the victim if she wanted to talk about “my dead boyfriend” before striking her in the head with a gun.
Both codefendants claimed Gonzalez repeatedly hit the victim with the gun. Garcia specifically described the incident as a “pistol-whipping,” according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
According to the warrant, Gonzalez and one of the men allegedly stomped on the victim as she lay on the ground following the beating.
“[The victim] advised Gonzalez also appeared to be filming the incident with a cellular telephone due to the flash being visibly turned on,” according to the paperwork. “The suspect later sent a clip of this video to the victim showing a portion of the incident.”
The victim claimed that she was eventually able to regain her footing and run, ultimately fearing for and running for her life.
According to the warrant, Gonzalez allegedly fired a single shot at the victim while she fled, attempting to hit her.
One of the codefendants, however, questioned the bullet’s trajectory. Rivas De Los Santos allegedly told the police Gonzalez fired the shot “at the ground” as the victim fled the scene, according to the affidavit.
Later, the victim told investigators that she knew at least two of the assailants, one of whom she attended middle school with. The unidentified victim also claimed to know Gonzalez from spending time with her in juvenile detention and recognized her voice from a series of back-and-forth messages exchanged between the two during social media arguments.
The victim then pointed investigators to an Instagram account she claimed belonged to the “dead boyfriend” in question. The victim stated that Gonzalez messaged her from that account.
“While looking at the messaging following the incident, Gonzalez makes the statement that she intended to kill [the victim] by shooting at her with the firearm and that she may attempt to shoot her again in the future,” according to the warrant.
Gonzalez allegedly addressed the victim’s mother in some cases, according to law enforcement.
“So I reacted crazy but I’m f—ed up mentally and I told her to stop it I’m telling her I’m going to kill her and she keeps talking about my dead people,” she wrote in one message, according to the warrant.
“If I killed her, which I was going to do, I would have been wrong; I just taught her a lesson,” she reportedly wrote in another message.
According to jail records, all three defendants are currently detained without bond at the Broward Main Jail.
