SHOOTING SUSPECT STILL AT LARGE
From the office of Roy Rice, Chief of Clovis Police Department; on August 14th, 2022 at 10:21 p.m., Clovis Police responded to the apartments located at 1100 Sycamore in reference to a gunshot victim. When Officers arrived, they located a 16-year-old male identified as Jessie Villanes-Lerma, deceased from an apparent gunshot wound to his neck, inside an apartment. When this information was originally released early Monday morning, no suspects or a cause to the shooting incident had been confirmed.
Around 9:00 am Monday an additional statement was released by Clovis PD. It reports as follows:
A resident of the apartment who was with Lerma during the incident and who also had his 11-month-old child in the residence told investigators that two armed men entered his apartment. The resident began struggling with the two gunmen when Lerma came to his aid from another room within the apartment. When Lerma confronted one of the gunmen, he was shot and killed and the two gunmen fled the scene. Security video was recovered from inside the apartment by investigators, which corroborates the resident’s story. From evidence found at the scene of the incident along with statements made by the resident, it is believed this shooting was the result of drugs being sold from the apartment.
This case is being investigated by the Clovis Police Department and the Major Crimes Unit. During this investigation, 42-year-old Jimmy Whitlock of Clovis was identified as the shooter. At this time Whitlock is still at large. Whitlock has an active warrant for his arrest in connection to this shooting for murder, aggravated burglary, felon in possession of a firearm, child abuse, conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, and larceny of a firearm.
If anyone has information about this incident or knows the whereabouts of Jimmy Whitlock, please contact the Clovis Police Department at 575-769-1921.
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