2 dead in home invasion; Cocoa police search for 2 other suspects

J.D. Gallop | Florida Today

Show Caption Hide Caption Cocoa police digging into fatal home invasion Breaking News reporter JD Gallop brings you the latest information on the fatal double shooting in Cocoa.

Jaleen Malik Howard’s last action to protect his apartment from three home invaders may have provided one of the biggest clues into who killed him.

Cocoa police said the 19-year-old — at home early Tuesday with his girlfriend and child — managed to exchange gunfire with a trio of men who stormed into his second-story apartment.

Bullets from a .40-caliber and 9 mm handgun pocked the wooden staircase and a nearby window in a chaotic scene, police and neighbors said.

One round from Howard’s gun struck and fatally wounded Rahkwon Shiem Yarveez Oquendo, 22, causing him to collapse in the street in front of the Peachtree Apartments on Peachtree Street east of U.S. 1.

911 Audio: Fatal shooting at Peachtree Apartments in Cocoa WARNING: This audio clip contains disturbing content. A woman speaks to emergency dispatchers after Jaleen Howard was fatally shot at his apartment on Peachtree Street in Cocoa early Tuesday.

Howard also was shot, bloodied with multiple wounds and dying in the stairwell in front of where he lived in Apt. 24 as neighbors attempted to comfort him.

"No!," screamed a woman to 9-1-1 operators as she called for help. "They shot my baby's daddy...oh my God, I need help. Oh my God, please...they just ran in my house shooting...I can't live without him," the caller said, hurriedly trying to get aid for Howard.

More: Suspect charged with attempted murder in Titusville shooting

More: Accidental shooting reported in Port St. John

More: How to sign up for FLORIDA TODAY's notifications

Detectives said the home invasion in the quiet, riverside community, was not random.

They quickly identified Oquendo and were searching for his two associates.

“We have several people being questioned right now,” said Yvonne Martinez, spokeswoman for the Cocoa Police Department. “We’re working to put together a motive. And there are two more suspects out there we’re looking for and we’re working hard to identify them.”

Police said Howard knew Oquendo.

Detectives are also looking at recent social media posts by Howard and talking to Howard’s friends to find out who might be involved. The suspect apparently had a drug arrest as a juvenile but little information was available about the case.

2 dead after attempted home invasion in Cocoa Police were on the scene after an attempted home invasion June 19, 2018, in Cocoa. 2 people died. Video by Tim Shortt, FLORIDA TODAY

The shootings are the 16th and 17th reported homicides to take place in Brevard County since Jan. 1.

The deadly incident unfolded just before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday when the three men confronted Howard. Moments later, multiple rounds of gunfire erupted, moving residents to take cover and call 9-1-1 for help.

“I woke up about 1:30 a.m. hearing about five gunshots,” said Linda Elliot, a real estate agent who lives down the street from the apartment complex.

“I was too afraid to even look out of my window. It sounded like ‘pop, pop, pop, pop,’" she said of the gunshots.

Ambulances and police cars soon sped onto the narrow roadway. Paramedics worked to save both Howard and his suspected assailant. Both were rushed to nearby hospitals where both were pronounced dead by doctors.

More: Download FLORIDA TODAY's e-Edition app

More: Construction worker using 'man lift' critically injured in Turnpike crash

The crime scene

By mid-morning, police left the Peachtree Apartments. Police crime scene tape had been taken down. Neighbors slowly tried to return to normal as a worker arrived to clean up the area in the stairwell.

One man, a physical therapist, walked past the blood draining down the stairs and the evidence markers to meet a client. Another woman was visiting her sister in the apartment below.

See Something, Brevard? Say Something! Call Crimeline Crimeline accepts anonymous tips to help fight crime. GINNY BEAGAN/FLORIDA TODAY

Neighbors said Howard, was a father with a 2-year-old child, and his girlfriend is pregnant with their second child and due in about a month.

They described him as full of life, very outgoing and very friendly.

Social media posts show Howard, who friends said recently worked at a Cape Canaveral restaurant, posing for the camera a number of times holding wads of cash. There was also a poignant post to Howard's Facebook page made last October below a picture of his child and girlfriend. It read: "I love them so much I’d risk my life for them."

Friends were stunned with the news.

"I don't feel like he deserved what happened to him or his family because they lost a loved one. It's just terrible," Kamiyah Foster told FLORIDA TODAY. "He has a family. It's just sad that someone came in and took him away from his family."

The investigation

At the Cocoa Police Department, the girlfriend of one of Howard’s friends arrived to talk with detectives. Detectives also questioned Howard’s girlfriend to garner more details.

“(Howard) worked hard and he loved to flash his money on Snapchat. It could have been that, I don’t know,” said Ashlyn Primeaux, who said her boyfriend was in the apartment when the gunfire erupted.

Primeaux said she was working the late shift at Taco Bell in Cocoa when she began to see social media posts asking for prayers for Howard.

“I just had some sense that something wasn’t right,” Primeaux said.

A short time later, she learned Howard had died.

“He was always a good person. I love him so much,” she said. “This is so sad.”

FLORIDA TODAY's Tim Walters, Tim Shortt and Jennifer Sangalang contributed to this report.

Contact Gallop at 321-242-3642

or jdgallop@floridatoday.com.

Twitter: @JDGallop

Support local journalism: To sign up for a special summer sale offer for new subscribers, visit floridatoday.com/subscribe.