MIAMI — Two men from Pinellas County were arrested Tuesday and charged with the 2016 murder of a Florida International Student and freelance photographer.
Michael Zaldua, 21, was shot and killed in an off-campus parking garage in Miami-Dade County on Dec. 2, 2016, according to a release from the Miami-Dade state attorney's office.
Investigators say when they arrived on scene, cash was scattered around Zaldua's body along with a loaded Glock magazine and a large amount of blood, which had tire marks from being driven through.
Nearly five years later, Donterio Rashad Fowler, a 25-year-old from Pinellas Park, and Keondre Quamar Fields, a 23-year-old from St. Peterburg, were arrested. The two men, who officials say were attending school in Miami-Dade County at the time, face charges of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon.
“Hopefully, the arrests of the alleged perpetrators of this homicide will provide some solace to Michael Zaldua’s family in the knowledge that the Miami-Dade Police Department and my prosecutors never stopped searching for those responsible for his death," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said.
“Loved ones deserve to know and deserve proper closure," added Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III.
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