A 23-year-old man is in federal custody after being linked to the February killing of a Florida tourist during an armed robbery of a group of visitors in Santurce, following an unrelated drug raid in Guaynabo.
Police say the man was arrested during a Sept. 16 raid on a home in the Hato Nuevo neighborhood of Guaynabo, where agents seized four AK-47 rifles, two Glock pistols, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and a quantity of drugs. During the raid, investigators connected him to the Feb. 2 killing of Vedhol Alexander Emmanuel Smith, 27, a Florida resident known as “Shooter.”
Smith was one of eight tourists riding in an Uber, a gray 2022 Toyota Sienna, after leaving a nightclub near Avenida Roberto H. Todd in Santurce. Police say the vehicle was intercepted by several masked, armed men near the intersection of Roberto H. Todd and Manuel Fernández Juncos avenues, in the area known as Parada 18. Smith was shot in the chest and killed; another passenger was wounded.
The killing was one of at least three shootings targeting tourists or nightlife patrons in that same stretch of Santurce within about two months, including the Jan. 3 killing of Omar Padilla Vélez in the nearby Barriada Figueroa.
The 23-year-old arrested in Guaynabo is now in the custody of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Police have not detailed specific charges related to Smith’s killing. A second man arrested in the same raid, 50, was found to be on supervised release dating to 2016.
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Sources: El Nuevo Día, El Vocero, Primera Hora, WAPA, Univision Puerto Rico
