A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old will be tried as adults in connection with a shooting at a troubled Gwinnett County apartment complex that left an 18-year-old dead last month, officials announced Friday.
Salvador Ruiz-Gonzalez, 16, and Andy Antonio Herrera, 15, both of Norcross, face charges of felony murder and aggravated assault, as well as possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and criminal attempt to commit a felony, Gwinnett police said. Ruiz-Gonzalez faces an additional charge of armed robbery.
They are accused of fatally shooting 18-year-old Andres David Buitrago Castillo on July 23 at the Elliot Norcross complex on Graves Road, not far from Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
That night, police were called to the complex after a woman said she heard two gunshots and then saw a group of masked individuals running away, an incident report states. When officers arrived, they found Castillo on the ground next to the driver’s side of a vehicle with a single gunshot wound to the head and a handgun by his waist.
At one point, Castillo’s mother arrived and tried to run into the crime scene, police noted in the report. She had to be calmed down and told to sit behind a patrol car as investigators gathered evidence.
A security guard at the complex told police he saw the group, describing them as four to six young men, according to the report. The guard chased them through the complex to a neighboring apartment community on Tree House Parkway.
Police have not said if they anticipate additional arrests. A motive for the alleged robbery was not disclosed.
The complex, formerly known as Vida Apartments, is among 272 of the metro area’s persistently dangerous complexes, according to an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that looked into serious crimes, lax maintenance and other hazards in Atlanta neighborhoods.
Between 2017 and 2021, there were 156 crimes reported there, including a homicide, 46 aggravated assaults, five rapes and 27 robberies that included two home invasions.
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