BARTOW, Fla — Two people being sought by detectives in Polk County were placed under arrest in Delaware earlier this month for the March 26 killing of a 34-year-old man.
Delaware State Police arrested 28-year-old Wesley Vazquez Andino and 26-year-old Adriana Oyola Del Valle for the death of Benjamin Mason III, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Mason was shot while riding a dirt bike.
The two were transported to Polk County on April 24 and were indicted by a Grand Jury.
First responders arrived just after 2 p.m. on March 26 at Wheeler Street in northeast Bartow and found Mason suffering from a gunshot wound. He was rushed to the hospital where he died. Deputies said an autopsy showed Mason had been shot in his lower back and the bullet traveled through his kidney, diaphragm and lung.
Information from witnesses pointed to Vasquez Andino and Oyola Del Valle of Lakeland, however, detectives learned that they "hurriedly fled from there," the sheriff's office said. They were later tracked to a relative's home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Oyola Del Valle told Polk County detectives that the two of them tried to purchase a dirt bike on Facebook Marketplace and paid a requested $100 deposit before the seller hung up on them and blocked their number when trying to call back.
"The couple went to find the seller of the dirt bike in Gordon Heights," the sheriff's office said. "They saw Mason on the same dirt bike and yelled out to him, but Mason drove past them and drove away."
Oyola Del Valle told detectives that's when Vasquez Andino fired a gunshot at Mason, authorities say.
Detectives said the woman said her three children were inside at the time of the shooting as well.