Andrew Faust Jr’s mom seeks justice 7 years after deadly drive-by shooting

Wednesday marked seven years since a Southwest Florida mother lost her 5-year-old son in a drive-by shooting. It also marks seven years in the push to bring the boy’s killer to justice.

Andrew Faust Jr. was at his home when a bullet went through the duplex he and his mother lived in and killed him.

We spoke to Andrew’s mother, Toyetta Simpson, who remembers her son for how he lived. She will never forget the night of Oct. 13, 2014.

“Still, to me, that was yesterday,” Toyetta said. “I was sitting in my home with my doors locked, and I thought that we were safe.”

But that night, bullets from a drive-by shooting pierced her home on Cuba Street in Dunbar, and one of those bullets hit Andrew as he played in the living room.

Andrew would have turned 12 this year.

“He’s always five,” Toyetta said. “And twenty years from now, he’ll still be five to me.”

Seven years later, there is no justice for Toyetta and her son.

Fort Myers Police Department previously arrested two men for Andrew’s murder, but the state attorney’s office dropped the charges after a witness changed her story.

Toyetta believes people in her community know what happened.

“They know,” Toyetta said. “They know the right thing to do.”

We asked FMPD to talk with someone about the unsolved case, but no one could speak with us. Police are asking if anyone knows anything about what happened to Andrew Faust Jr. To speak with them.

Southwest Florida is offering a $3,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.

Toyetta Simpson doesn’t know if her son will ever get the justice he deserves. She fears the one person she needs to speak up will never come forward.

“If they choose to do that, then, that’s between them and God,” Toyetta said. “They’re going to have to answer to that one day.”