The Osceola County Sheriff's Office has made a total of seven arrests in the Oct. 9 shooting death of a 23-year-old woman outside the Red Star Hookah Bar on West U.S. Highway 192.
Sheriff Marcos Lopez said he needed to wait to comment on the case until all suspects were in custody.
Sheriff's deputies reported to the scene shortly after 5 a.m. to find Danilee Hernandez was shot and killed when the group of seven men opened fire on another group exiting the hookah bar as part of a fight.
"They didn't hit any of their intended targets, instead the group hit an innocent woman," Lopez said.
According to investigators, Hernandez was in a car when the shooting began, and got out to run away from the scene when she was shot and killed.
Michelle Hernandez, Danilee's mother, attended Friday's press conference, and said she texted her daughter at 2 a.m. that morning and got no response. Danilee was still not home when Michelle woke up at 7 a.m., and she called the group who her daughter went out with.
"I was told she went back (to the hookah bar), so I did the only thing I knew, to call 9-1-1, and they told me she was 'in the system,'" Michelle said. "Where I come from that means you were arrested, so I drove to the police not assuming this."
The mother said she's grateful the arrests have been made.
"In that they caught seven people in two months is amazing," she said. "I prayed that this would not be a cold case. I have the rest of my life without my girl, so I want them to do the same life sentence."
The suspects were arrested across Central Florida and in Miami, Lopez said. According to Florida law, any person who discharges a weapon in a death can be charged with murder, which explains the multiple murder charges.
"Gun violence is getting out of control, and we're not going to tolerate that here in Osceola County," Lopez said. "This was a senseless murder that never should have happened."
The defendants and their charges are:
Mylam Yaheiya Peters, 27, Kissimmee: Discharging a firearm in public, Carrying concealed firearm (has bonded out of jail)
Jesus Ojeda-Garcia, Orlando: Premeditated murder, attempted murder
Jose Antonio Cruz-Ortiz, Kissimmee: Premeditated murder, attempted murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
Joshua Medina-Rosa, Orlando: Providing false information to law enforcement, tampering with evidence in a capital felony, accessory after the fact during a capital felony (has bonded out of jail)
Juan Carlos Reyes, Orlando: Premeditated murder, attempted murder
Daniel Alfredo Cruz, Ocala: Premeditated murder, attempted murder
Jonathan Dejesus Hernandez-Brioso, Orlando: Premeditated murder, attempted murder
