ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County school officials said Monday that grief counselors would be on the Edgewater High School campus after one of its students was shot and killed during a home invasion last week.
Deputies said Luismil Hernandez, 18, and Gerald Anderson, 18, broke into a home on Murcott Circle late Wednesday afternoon. Surveillance video showed Hernandez hand Anderson a handgun before the teens broke down the front door, causing the alarm to go off, according to court documents.
The homeowner, 70-year-old Juan Jose Caraballo, heard the teenagers and armed himself with a .45-caliber handgun. He came face-to-face with Anderson in one of the bedrooms and the two exchanged gunfire, deputies said.
Anderson was shot twice in the chest and once in the leg, records show. Authorities said they found him lying in a bed, unresponsive and covered in blood, with a .40-caliber Glock in his hand.
Caraballo was shot in the arm, chest and lower abdomen. His wife found him crawling on the ground near the front door when she got home from work that day, the arrest report said. He was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center to undergo surgery.
Hernandez fled through a back door. He was arrested Friday on charges of armed burglary and first-degree felony murder after deputies compared his Facebook photo to a still from surveillance footage at the home.
Anderson's mother told deputies that Hernandez picked up her son to meet with their probation officer earlier that day and that was the last time she saw him before his death, the report said.
Anderson was a senior at Edgewater High School, according to Orange County school district officials.
Edgewater football coach Cameron Duke told News 6 that Anderson was a member of the school’s football team.
In a Facebook post, Duke said he and his team “were all able to see the real Gerald Anderson.”
Duke said Anderson was setting himself up to graduate and attend college and that he felt blessed to have coached him.
“Yes, there were decisions that could have been made to not allow this to happen, but we will always remember Gerald Fredo as a young man created in the image of God,” Duke wrote.
The news of Anderson's death traveled fast on Edgewater's campus Monday. Some students overcome by grief had to leave class, students told News 6.
Edgewater senior Jeremiah Evans said he first learned of his friend's death on social media.
Anderson was at the wrong place at the wrong time, Evans said, but he was a good person.
"He was so close to graduation," Evans said, shaking his head.
"It was really sad because he was already ready for college and everything, and I had friends that played football with him so it was really sad," Yenly Burgos, another Edgewater High senior, said.
An Orange County Public Schools spokeswoman said grief counselors were on campus Monday in case students or staff needed to talk to someone.