Residents want answers on Milton shooting

It appears, at least for now, no one will be held responsible for a 2014 shooting that left a Milton man dead and his 14-year-old brother paralyzed. Marlon Martinez-Hernandez, shot as he sat in a car with his brother Rogelio, remains paralyzed and has difficulty speaking. It is unclear whether he remembers and could testify about what happened that night nearly two years ago when his brother was murdered.

On the night of the shooting, Marlon told the responding officer, Milton's Lt. Derrick Harvey, that the voice he heard from the masked shooter sounded like his brother's friend, "Macho," Carlos Juan Feliciano-Concepcion, 22, of Milton. Marlon's statement led to identifying Feliciano-Concepcion as a suspect. Police talked to the suspect's brother, Juan, who eventually said Feliciano-Concepcion admitted shooting Rogelio and his brother, and then burying the gun.

Marlon's statement, coupled with the statement of Feliciano-Concepcion's brother, resulted in Feliciano-Concepcion's arrest. On the face of it, the statements appear to offer significant evidence.

But on Aug. 12, all charges against Feliciano-Concepcion were withdrawn. He is now a free man. If police have another suspect or a plan to refile charges, they are not saying so.

It's true that eyewitnesses make mistakes, and it's possible the suspect's brother made up his story. But those are not the reasons charges were withdrawn. Court documents state they were withdrawn because of insufficient evidence, an issue that arose because no officers at the scene had activated a body camera – or if anyone did, no video or audio was preserved. It was later destroyed.

Besides that, some officers failed to write reports until more than a year after the murder. Lt. Harvey, the first on the murder scene and immediately faced with a boy near death, can be forgiven for not thinking about his body camera. Should that now mean his testimony is worthless? That state police officers who took charge of the investigation failed to preserve evidence is more troubling.

What happened? Did police jail the wrong man 20 months ago? Or do they think they've released a man who killed his friend and nearly killed a 14-year-old boy?

For now, no one is talking, but Milton residents and the entire community deserve better answers.