Second Person, Jonathan Martinez, Dies After Feb. 26 Whitehall Township Walmart Parking Lot Double Shooting
WHITEHALL, Pa. (CBS/AP) -- A second person has died following a shooting in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Lehigh County last month that killed a woman. The Lehigh County coroner's office said 22-year-old Jonathan Martinez, of Allentown, died at 1:30 a.m. Sunday at Lehigh Valley Hospital. An autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death, but the coroner's office ruled the manner of death homicide.
Nicolette Law, 20, of Allentown was pronounced dead earlier of gunshot wounds following the Feb. 26 shooting in the parking lot of the Whitehall Township store. Her death has also been ruled a homicide.
"She always smiled, made you laugh," Natalie Law, Law's mother, said. "I thought she slept over at a friend's house because she didn't come home. The cops knocked on my door in the morning. He told me she was shot and killed last night at Walmart."
County prosecutors and township police said Edward Joel Rosario-Jimenez, 23, was charged with criminal homicide, attempted criminal homicide and aggravated assault as well as a firearms offense.
A witness told police that the female victim had gone to the store parking lot on that Friday night to pick up her child. The witness said she and two other people arrived with the defendant, who got into an argument with one of the victims, after which she heard gunshots. Another witness reported seeing the defendant firing several gunshots at the victims. A handgun was found hidden in a snowbank nearby, authorities said.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
