Teenager shot in the face in East Fort Myers

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Family members of a young man said he was shot in the face during a drive-by shooting Sunday afternoon.

It happened in the 300 block of Lorraine Drive just after 5 p.m. The 18-year-old’s family said he was shot in the jaw and was taken to the hospital in serious condition. The family also said the shooting stemmed from an argument, according to our partners at the News-Press.

Jenny Sheridan is a cousin of the victim.  She says the family doesn’t know who shot Patricio Centreras, but hopes to see the suspects behind bars, “You  know his little sisters didn’t know what to think. Me, myself I was very scared.”

“Nothing’s happened like this before!” Marcie Pribula, who lives a few houses down, said.

Neighbors on Lorraine Drive were shocked to come outside and find a crime scene right outside their front door.

“At around five o’clock I started cooking dinner, throw something out, I heard a bunch of commotion going on down there,” Eugene Barrow, another neighbor, said.

“The guy’s face was all bloody,” Pribula said.

The family of the victim says the 18-year-old was at a friend’s house. They say a car with at least four people inside began shooting at them. One of the bullets hit his jaw.

“I see him have something covering his face and when EMS got here you see all the blood and stuff,” Barrow said.

Neighbors say Lee County deputies showed up immediately and began searching for the suspect.

“Well I came out and saw the helicopter and then it looked like it was going to go away and then all of a sudden it came back and the circle got a lot smaller and I’m like, ‘oh that’s not good,'” Pribula said.

LCSO says the teen was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital and is now in stable condition. There’s no word yet on what exactly prompted the shooting.

“There are a lot of moving parts to this investigation. It is very much so just in the beginning stages, infant stages of this,” Lt. Jeff Dektas said.

Sheridan says Centreras is expected to be okay, but that the family won’t find closure until arrests are made, “His mom, I was hugging her telling her he was going to be okay.”

A Lee County sheriff’s helicopter was in the area shortly after the incident searching for the suspect. At this time no arrests have been made.

LCSO says this is an isolated incident and the public is not in any danger.

Trust WINK News to update you on the this story when we get more information.