KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Police in Kissimmee have arrested a man in connection with celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Day that left a woman dead.
Police said 56-year-old Carmen Neira Ochoa was hit by a bullet and killed early on Jan. 1 in a Kissimmee neighborhood.
Police on Friday identified Carlos Tejada, 44, as the suspect in the case. Detectives believe Tejada was firing his gun in celebration.
“It’s a stupid act,” said Kissimmee Interim Police Chief Robert Anzueto, Kissimmee’s interim chief of Police said Friday. “I wish people would understand that there are consequences to your actions. And shooting a gun is absolutely unnecessary and it’s only going to cause harm.”
Anzueto said officers arrested Tejada at his home on Anhinga Drive in Kissimmee Friday. His home is across the lake from where Ochoa died.
“[Tejada] fired from his backyard over the lake, but unfortunately it went over and then into the screened-in porch of Ms. Ochoa,” Anzueto said.
Minutes into the new year, Anzueto said, Ochoa had been sitting on her back porch watching fireworks with her adult daughters.
“All of a sudden, she felt like a sharp pain in her and realized that she had been hit by celebratory gunfire,” Anzueto said. “Her daughters tried to perform life-saving measures.”
News 6 went to Tejada’s home hours after he was arrested. No one answered the door, but a woman used the Ring Camera to tell News 6 to leave the property.
A few doors down from Tejada’s home, neighbor Diana Sepulveda said she hopes this incident serves as a cautionary tale.
“If it goes up,” Sepulveda said. “It’s going to come down to us.”
Tejada was arrested on charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence.
Anzueto added that officers recovered 11 guns from the scene.
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