Bernadette Ortiz was shot to death by her boyfriend after an argument (PHOTOS)

• Bernadette Ortiz was shot to death by her boyfriend.
• Derek Sheppard was arrested as the alleged murderer.
• He escaped from Rhode Island and was arrested in Georgia.

Bernadette Ortiz, a mother and grandmother, was shot to death by her boyfriend. Derek Sheppard is already in custody for the crime. The Providence Police Department (PPD) in Rhode Island, announced Derek Sheppard’s arrest. He was on the run for several days after killing Bernadette Ortiz.

The murder of 50-year-old Bernadette Ortiz at the hands of 35-year-old Derek Sheppard was classified as a domestic violence crime by the detectives of the PPD Homicide Division. This is because she was killed after an argument with her boyfriend.

Bernadette Ortiz was shot to death by her boyfriend

At 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, residents of Harold Street in the Valley neighborhood, in the eastern Providence metropolitan area, called emergency services to report the sound of gunshots coming from a house on their street.

The PPD report does not detail who called the emergency number. The information provided by the authorities also doesn’t specify the exact address of the house. The officers arrived at a two-story house registered in the name of Bernadette Ortiz.

A dispute resulted in Bernadette Ortiz’s death

When the officers entered Bernadette Ortiz’s house, responding to reports of an alleged crime being committed, they found her shot to death. She was lying on the floor in one of the second-story bedrooms. The officers requested the presence of the Homicide Division.

Detectives from the PPD Homicide Division determined that moments before the shots were heard, there was a violent dispute between Bernadette Ortiz and her boyfriend, Derek Sheppard, inside the house. The reason for the dispute is unknown and his whereabouts were also unknown at that time.

The murderer fled from Providence, RI

Based on testimony and forensic analysis of the crime scene, the PPD Homicide Division detectives already knew on the morning of Thursday, February 10, 2022, that Derek Sheppard was responsible for the alleged murder of his girlfriend Bernadette Ortiz.

Officers issued an arrest warrant for Derek Sheppard for the murder of Bernadette Ortiz. However, in the initial investigation by the PPD Homicide Division detectives, it was learned that he had already left the state of Rhode Island.

Dozens of police departments were looking for the killer

The PPD Homicide Division investigation revealed that Derek Sheppard, the alleged killer of Bernadette Ortiz, had relatives in Florida. Police departments all along the East Coast of the United States were warned of the killer’s possible route.

From the northeast part of the United States, you can get from Rhode Island to Florida via I-95, driving parallel to the Atlantic coast. This route goes through several states and every law enforcement agency on that route had details of Derek Sheppard’s car.

The killer’s car was parked at a Walmart.

The alleged murderer of Bernadette Ortiz was traveling in a black Nissan Altima car with the license number LD-715 and a large New York Yankees decal on the left side of the trunk. Those details facilitated the arrest of Derek Sheppard.

At 12:45 p.m. on Friday, February 11, 2022, an officer from the Pooler Police Department (PPD) was making his usual rounds in a small town in Georgia, east of the Savannah metropolitan area in the southeastern part of the state.

Police close the Walmart to arrest the fugitive

The PPD patrolman entered the parking lot of a Walmart in the city and while driving through the aisles between the cars he noticed that the Nissan Altima with license plates LD-715 and a Yankees sticker was parked there. The city of Pooler is off I-95 in Georgia.

The PPD officer radioed for support from his colleagues and other departments. In minutes they had covertly surrounded the entire parking lot of the Walmart in Pooler so that no one could leave without being noticed.

The Hispanic woman’s murderer is in jail

Derek Sheppard, the alleged murderer of Bernadette Ortiz, returned to his car after leaving Walmart without noticing the presence of officers from different departments. Before he got into his car, the officers surprised him and put him under arrest.

At the time of writing this story, Derek Sheppard is still being held in the Chatham County jail, waiting for a judge to authorize his transfer to Providence, Rhode Island where he will face justice for the shooting death of his girlfriend Bernadette Ortiz.

Bernadette Ortiz, one more victim of gun violence

The shooting death of Bernadette Ortiz is just one more case of gun violence in the United States. The non-profit organization National Gun Violence Archive, reported that so far in 2022, 5,072 people have already been shot to death.

As of Sunday, February 13, 2022, of those people shot to death in the United States, a total of 2,168 were killed and 2,904 committed suicide. 3,833 people were injured. The country has already experienced 48 mass shootings in which at least four people died in the same crime.

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