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. (more…)

Jeremiah Minatee

Still, 22-year-old Herbie Innocent ended up dead Friday night and, two days later, Minattee, 18, was behind bars for his murder.

Police say witnesses reported that Innocent’s death was retaliation for him allegedly beating Minatee’s sister before he was shot dead outside a home on Ormond Avenue.

The sister told police Innocent, her ex-boyfriend, had punched her in the face several times when he met to pick up their baby earlier that night. After he left, the woman called her mother, who showed up with Minatee to check on her, she said.

Mary Dawson told police her son, Minatee, was upset. He had received a message from Innocent about the incident and meeting later that night to fight.

“Don’t do it,” she told her son. “It ain’t worth it.” (more…)

By ANA X. CERON and DAPHNE DURET
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Manuel Morales

He did.

After receiving a call shortly before 1 a.m. that Morales was armed with a knife and could possibly kill the five other people in his house on Southeast Croquet Street, police asked Manuel to let them inside the back bedroom where he had barricaded himself. He didn’t.

So Officers Matthew Cuba and Albert Riccardi forced open the door and saw Morales pointing straight at them what they believed was a rifle.

Cuba fired his Taser, narrowly missing him before Riccardi fired at the man twice.
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