Allentown PA October 25 2019

The man arrested following a standoff in Lower Milford Township is being charged in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man during a robbery outside an Allentown nightclub early Wednesday, Lehigh District Attorney Jim Martin and Allentown Police Chief Glenn Granitz Jr. announced.

Walter Martinez, 26, of the 500 block of Harrison Street in Allentown, is charged with criminal homicide, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in the death of Yaret Rivera, of Worcester, Massachusetts, outside the Chicago Sports Bar & Grill and Club Gravity on Airport Road, Martin and Granitz said.

Police are still looking for an unidentified accomplice.

“I want to commend members of the Allentown Police Department and Lehigh County Homicide Task Force for their work on this investigation, which led to a very quick resolution and to the charging of Walter Martinez for this crime,” Martin said.

Martinez was arrested hours after the killing in a home in Lower Milford. Residents in the township’s Milky Way neighborhood say he surrendered to state troopers around 10:45 a.m. According to one resident, Martinez had been staying with his girlfriend, who lives on the street.

Martinez was arraigned on Wednesday night. Police arrested another man who was with Martinez at the club and charged him with hindering apprehension after he gave police false information on Martinez’s whereabouts, according to court records.

Rivera was found shot at 1:03 a.m. Wednesday outside the club at 1179 Airport Road. A friend of the victim told police he and Rivera were leaving the club when they were approached by someone who yelled “run everything you got, why why why,” court records say.

There was a struggle and Rivera’s friends ran away and returned to find him bleeding on the ground. Charms from Rivera’s necklace were found between two vehicles, and police reviewed video from a nearby business that confirmed a robbery and assault had happened near where the charms were located, court records say.

Christopher Tiscio, co-owner of the club, confirmed that a man confronted Rivera, then snatched a chain from his neck and shot him.

The gunman had been in the club earlier, and police obtained information on him from an identification scanner and surveillance video, Tiscio said.

Anthony DeLeon, a co-owner of the club, added that Rivera and the suspect were both in the club that night, but they had no contact with each other inside. “Don’t even know if they spoke,” he said.

“Through our cooperation and swift work by the Allentown Police Department and their detectives, all parties involved have been caught and arrested,” he said in a statement.

According to court records, Martinez, Anthony Thomas and two others were in the club, and Martinez was asked to take Thomas outside because he was intoxicated. The two men left and remained outside, when a security guard heard a gunshot.

Tiscio said his security guards heard one shot.

“My guys ran out to treat the guy after the gunshot — they’re certified to do that — and he was alive when the ambulance left,” Tiscio said.

The Lehigh County coroner’s office said Rivera was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill at 1:38 a.m., and the death was ruled a homicide as a result of a gunshot wound.

After the security guard went outside, he saw Thomas driving off in a black Acura, court records say. The guard tried to stop Thomas from driving off, and when he engaged Thomas, Martinez approached and appeared to be clutching his waist as if he were armed, court records say.

Martinez got in the passenger seat, and the two men left.

Thomas was later arrested in the 800 block of North Eighth Street in Allentown and told officers that they wouldn’t be able to find his friend because he was already down Route 309, court records say.

He then told police he doesn’t know Martinez or where he lives and was not with him at the club, court records say.

A city detective then spoke to Martinez’s mother, and she told them he had been with Thomas.

Martin and Granitz say Thomas drove Martinez from the scene, but it does not appear he was involved in the robbery or homicide.

Thomas, 24, of the 1900 block of West Tremont Street in Allentown, was charged with hindering apprehension. He was arraigned by District Judge Michael D’Amore and sent to Lehigh County Jail under $50,000 bail.

In Lower Milford’s Milky Way neighborhood, near Limeport Pike and Kings Highway, residents were startled around 7 a.m. at the sight of dozens of state police.

“I got worried when I saw all these state troopers going into people’s yards with their rifles, like they were looking for somebody,” said Kiana Covelens, 21, who lives with her parents on Milky Way. “We knew it was serious because the whole road was blocked off.”

Covelens said police surrounded the home of her friend in the 8200 block.

She said Martinez, whom she met a week earlier, eventually came out with his hands up and was taken away by troopers, adding her friend had been dating him for two to three months.

“He seemed like a real nice guy, real respectful,” she said. “He adores [his girlfriend’s] kid, takes him on the bus every morning. He pretty much lives there. He’s there a lot.”

As a teenager in 2011, Martinez was charged with carjacking a man who was dropping off Mother’s Day gifts at his mother’s home in Whitehall Township. He led police on a brief pursuit and crashed in an alley in Allentown. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and fleeing and eluding police and was sentenced to 30 months to seven years.

DeLeon extended his condolences to Rivera’s family on behalf of the nightclub.

“Though you can’t stop everything, we do go above and beyond to provide a safe environment inside and outside our establishment,” he said in a statement.

There have been two other shooting incidents this year in the same parking lot.

On April 13, a man fired a gun at patrons leaving Chicago Sports Bar for the night. Police charged 36-year-old Wilfredo Gonzalez, who was wounded when a security guard returned fire, according to court records. Gonzalez was charged with two firearms violations and reckless endangerment.

On Sept. 21, a man who had been thrown out of the club threatened security guards and fired three or four shots in the air, according to court records. Shawndarryl D. Daniel, 31, of Decatur, Georgia, was charged with illegally possessing a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license, terroristic threats, simple assault and disorderly conduct.

Allentown has been experiencing one of its most violent years in memory. During the summer, more than two dozen people fell victim to gunfire between June and August. That included 10 people wounded in the June 20 shooting outside the Deja Vu Night Club, probably the Lehigh Valley’s worst-ever mass shooting.

Morning Call

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