Off Duty Officer Shoots PG Resident At Basketball Game

On Thursday March fourteenth, sometime around nine fifteen p.m., police received reports of a shooting outside of the Punta Gorda sports auditorium. Officers visited the area and encountered Police Constable Feliz Fernandez attached to the Toledo Formation. PC Fernandez reported that he, along with his common-law wife, went to watch a basketball game. According to Fernandez, they sat on the bleachers and a while later they were harassed by one Richard Valerio who is his common-law’s ex- partner, who was shouting profanities to them, including saying, “somebody will die tonight”. Fernandez went on to say that to avoid a confrontation, they moved to another area. However, they were accosted by Valerio, who continued with his profanities. Fernandez further stated that he decided to leave and asked a fellow officer to escort him to his vehicle. Fernandez claims that Valerio later inflicted damage to his car which was parked outside of the auditorium, by shattering the windshield with rocks.  The report further states that PC Fernandez ordered Richard Valerio to drop the rock, that is when Richard Valerio threw a rock in PC Fernandez’s direction but missed. Fernandez then claims that, fearing for his life, he drew his licensed mine millimeter pistol and fired a single shot in Valerio’s direction. Valerio then ran inside the complex area and was then immediately rushed by police to the Punta Gorda Hospital for medical treatment for injuries to his lower back. We spoke with the sister of the victim, who wishes to remain unnamed. She stated that contrary to Fernandez’s account, her brother had not approached or interacted with the officer. According to her, her brother had been the victim of multiple incidents of harassment from the officer and had even been assaulted previously inside his home. Accusations are that the dispute ignited over a shared romantic partner and that her brother had been on the receiving end of injustice for several months now. Commissioner of Police has ordered an internal investigation concurrent with the criminal investigation into this incident. An update will be provided at the end of the investigation. The firearm was retrieved for ballistic testing.