Brother of NFL star Dante Fowler and suspect's friend are arrested for 'shooting dead a student inside a parking garage in 2016 in suspected drug deal gone wrong'
The brother of Atlanta Falcons linebacker Dante Fowler has been charged with first-degree murder for the 2016 killing of a Florida International University student in a campus parking lot.
Donterio Fowler, 26, and Keondre Fields, 23, are accused of shooting dead 21-year-old Michael Zaldua at point-blank range inside the 4th Street Commons apartment complex at the school's Modesto Maidique campus at 11pm on December 2, 2016, in a suspected drug deal gone wrong.
Zaldua's body was discovered after the shooting surrounded by cash with a gun in his pocket, a loaded Glock magazine nearby and 'several large ziplock bags of marijuana and a small ziplock bag of cocaine' in the victim's car, according to Local 10.
Keondre Fields, 23, (pictured left) and Donterio Fowler, 26, (pictured right) have been charged with first degree murder for the unsolved shooting of FIU student Michael Zaldua, 21, in a school housing complex parking lot
Michael Zaldua, 21, was shot at point-blank range at the school's Modesto Maidique campus on December 2, 2016
A tire impression in Zaldua's blood was also found at the scene - according to the Miami Dade Police Department.
A cold case team working on the five-year-old case were able to match the tire impression to the bottom of Fowler's 2014 black Dodge Charger. Blood was also discovered on the vehicle, which spurred a warrant for Fowler's arrest.
Donterio Fowler is the brother of NFL star Dante Fowler
The suspects were both students at ASA College in Hialeah at the time of the shooting, according to the Miami Herald, and lived in Pinellas County. Now, the two have been booked in a Pinellas County prison to be extradited to await their trial in Miami Dade.
'We are anxiously awaiting young Donterio's transfer to Miami so we can secure his swift release,' said Fowler's attorney, Michael Grieco, in a statement. 'Although little information is currently available, the one thing I am certain of is that Mr. Fowler has committed no crime.'
Also mentioned in the arrest warrant was an empty 9mm bullet casing in the vehicle, surveillance video of the vehicle in the parking lot at the time that the murder took place and calls to Zaldua from Fowler's phone in the days leading up to the murder.
The phone, coincidentally, was registered in Dante Fowler's name - however, his brother reportedly used it and listed its number on official documents.
Dante Fowler is not suspected or accused of any involvement in the killing. He was offered a three-year contract to play with the Atlanta Falcons in March of 2020 - in 2015 he was selected third overall for the Jacksonville Jaguars during the NFL draft after playing college football at the University of Florida.
The testimony of a third man whose White Audi A4 was captured following Fowler's Charger into the garage was also cited in the warrant. The unidentified third man, who police said is thought to be an associate of the alleged killers, told police 'he heard and observed two gunshots being fired.'
Zaldua's body was discovered after the 11 p.m. shooting surrounded by cash with a gun in his pocket, a loaded Glock magazine nearby and 'several large ziplock bags of marijuana and a small ziplock bag of cocaine' in the victim's car
Zaldua was shot inside the 4th Street Commons apartment complex at the school's Modesto Maidique campus
Forensic data suggest that Fields, who was reportedly sitting in the rear of the Dodge Charger, fired the shot that killed Zaldua, according to his arrest warrant. It is unclear whether Fields has an attorney representing him.
The victim, according to the Herald, was a 21-year-old freelancer photographer and student who was living with his mother in Doral at the time of his murder.
'Hopefully, the arrests of the alleged perpetrators of this homicide will provide some solace to Michael Zaldua's family in the knowledge that the Miami-Dade Police Department and my prosecutors never stopped searching for those responsible for his death,' State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.
'Loved ones deserve to know and deserve proper closure,' said Miami-Dad Police Chief Alfredo Ramirez III of the recent arrests.