Fort Pierce Police Chief Sean Baldwin shakes Mark Steele's hand after the academy cadet found the gun believed to have been used in Friday's fatal shooting.

Steele, 20, and 15 other cadets enrolled at Indian River State College were asked to find the gun used in a Friday night shooting that left a Fort Pierce man dead in what is thought to have been retaliation for his beating a woman earlier that evening.

The woman’s brother, Fort Pierce resident Jeremiah Minatee, 18, was arrested Sunday in connection with the shooting.

Minatee has denied the charges and police hadn’t been able to find a key piece of evidence: the gun.

But five days after the incident, Steele spotted the firearm believed to have been used tucked in a bush about a block away from the spot that 22-year-old Herby Innocent was killed.

“I moved the branches out of the way and I immediately saw the handle,” Steele said.

This was at an abandoned house’s front yard, the second property that Steele and his search partner, Erika Gerstner, has combed through that morning. It was also about 45 minutes after the search kicked off.

When Steele told Gerstner he had found a firearm, she didn’t believe him until she saw it for herself.

Steele could understand why. “Most of the time you never find the weapon,” he explained.

The crime scene unit was called to the house at 1211 Raymond Avenue, where they documented the lucky find with pictures and measurements.

Det. Sgt. Dennis McWilliams praised the Steele’s work, saying it could give the department a boost with the case. Police will send the gun out for ballistics testing to confirm it was the weapon used in Innocent’s shooting, a spokeswoman said.

“Not only does it give us the opportunity to collect physical evidence we would not have had, but it also gives us the peace of mind that this weapon is off the streets and will not be used to kill anyone else,” McWilliams said.

It’s that peace of mind that compelled Steele, a Hobe Sound resident, to purse law enforcement. He is set to earn his associate’s degree next month and his certification six months after that. He has applications in to the Florida Highway Patrol and other local law enforcement agencies.

Tags: fatal shooting, gun, Herbie Innocent, homicide, Indian River State College, Jeremiah Minatee, law enforcement academy, Mark Steele

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Crime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.