Friends host vigil for Palmetto students involved in shooting

NAPLES, Fla.- Around 100 friends gathered at the Naples pier along with some of Marcos Aleman’s family to remember the 17-year-old who was taken too soon.

Raw emotion light up the pier; cries could be heard from those who loved him most. His friends and family gathered around photos, flowers and lit candles in his honor.

One teen overcome with emotion fainted on the pier. As friends called for “medics” police helped pull him from the crowd. A stretcher took him away.

Across town, neighbors described what they heard the night Aleman was shot.

“Right now it’s pretty much fuzzed on what was going on,” said Donald Twedell.

Twedell is still traumatized. He tells WINK News he got home just moments after deputies say 17-year old Meliton Cruz Jr. shot two teens right down the street from his home.

“My mom, she told me that she heard about 6-8 gun shots,” he said.

“it could have went through my door and hit niece in the head, because when I walked in the door my niece was right there by the door,” said Twedell.

Collier County Deputies tell WINK News, Cruz gunned down Aleman, a student at Naples Beacon High School.
18-year old Michael Stallone was also shot and injured.

“I heard that this kid, he panicked after he seen his friend get killed, and he ran to this cop’s house who lives two doors down from me,” said Twedell.

“I seen him struggling trying to move and everyone is holding him down to lay down on the stretcher,” he said.

Investigators say Stallone gave them Cruz’s name and vehicle description. Not long after deputies found the teen and arrested him.