PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. – A 17-year-old boy was arrested Saturday and accused of a 2023 murder in Putnam County.
According to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Ramon Gomez-Hernandez shot and killed Rubli Perez-Lucas in June of last year. Gomez-Hernandez is also accused of the attempted murder of two others, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon.
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Deputies said they responded to a call that a person was shot on Kane Road in East Palatka last year and when they arrived Perez-Lucas was no longer on scene as he was taken in a vehicle to the hospital along with another victim. A third gunshot victim remained at the scene and was taken by rescue personnel to the hospital.
During the investigation, witnesses told detectives multiple people in a vehicle pulled onto Kane Road to fight an undisclosed person. Perez-Lucas and several people intervened and a fight broke out between the groups. As the fight was continuing a second car pulled into the area and the driver from that vehicle pulled a gun out and started shooting at the groups that were fighting.
At the time of the incident, witnesses did not provide detectives with any suspect information other than the shooter was a Hispanic man.
However, detectives said they located a crashed white Dodge Journey which was one of the vehicles witnesses described as being at the scene. Detectives were able to recover forensic evidence from the vehicle. On Feb. 20, based on laboratory results from the forensic evidence, detectives were able to identify Gomez-Hernandez as the suspected shooter.
“This was a difficult investigation due to the lack of cooperation from those associated with Ramon Gomez-Hernandez,” Sheriff H.D. ‘Gator’ DeLoach said. “At every step there was intentional efforts to thwart this investigation, but justice prevailed due to the plethora of forensic evidence obtained all linking this wannabe gangster to the murder of Rubli Perez-Lucas and the attempted murder of two others.”
This is an ongoing investigation and there is still more evidence processing. At this time a possible motive for the shooting is not being released, the Sheriff’s Office said.