A Pennsylvania boy was fatally shot on Saturday allegedly while was reportedly trying to escape from a registered sex offender in a Harrisburg neighborhood.
via People:
On Saturday at about 12:55 p.m., residents of North 18th and Forster streets in Harrisburg said they saw a boy, identified by ABC 27 and family members as Kyan King, 16, naked and terrified as he ran from a man chasing him with a gun, the Harrisburg Bureau of Police says in a release, and ABC 27 and Penn Live report.
When the boy reached a white fence between two houses in the neighborhood and could go no further, the man allegedly shot him, Penn Live reports.
“He was pleading for his life,” neighbor Tracy Burton told Penn Live.
Burton told Penn Live she called 911 when she saw the boy run by her house with a man after him.
She said she could hear the teen yelling “Help me!” as she and other neighbors raced outside to help him and called out to him, Penn Live reports.
The suspect, identified as Orlando Duarte, 46, of Harrisburg, fired multiple shots at the boy, witnesses said, the Harrisburg Bureau of Police says in the release.
The boy still called for help as Duarte fired at him, neighbors told Penn Live.
When officers arrived, neighbors pointed them to where Duarte – still armed with a handgun — had fled on foot, police say in the release.
Officers took him into custody.
Duarte was still armed when he was arrested, say police in the release.
He is charged with criminal homicide and possession of a firearm prohibited.
He is being held in the Dauphin County Jail without bail. He has not yet entered a plea.
It is unclear whether he has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Duarte was listed as a registered sex offender in 2015 for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.
In 2012, he was sentenced to four to eight years in prison and 10 years of probation after being convicted of charges including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and indecent assault of a person less than 13, online records state, according to Penn Live.
In 2008, he was sentenced to six to 23 months of confinement and probation after pleading no contest to charges including simple assault and indecent assault of a person less than 16, records show, Penn Live reports.
As Duarte awaits his next court date on Sept. 28, King’s family and friends are grappling with the loss of the boy with the big heart who always made them laugh.
“We all loved Ky Ky,” King’s sister, Nyairrea Jones, told ABC 27 at a vigil held for him Saturday night.
“We love him a lot,” Jones told ABC 27. “My little brother. Everything about him, I miss it all.”
King “had a very big laugh that you could hear all the way upstairs on the 3rd floor,” family member Destiny Williams, told ABC 27.
“You could always hear him laughing and talking and everything,” she said.
King knew his way around a kitchen, Jones told CBS 21. “He liked to bake,” she said. “He did grilled cheese sandwiches. He loved them.”
Besides that, she told the outlet, “He always put a smile on your face. Just happy thoughts. Just remember happy thoughts from him.”
Our hearts go out to Kyan’s family. The family has set up a GoFundMe to help out with funeral costs.
