Bunnell, FL – A Palm Coast teenager faces an attempted first-degree murder charge nearly 2 months after an 18-year-old man was critically injured in a shooting.
17-year-old Zaire Roberts of Pine Hill Lane was arrested early Thursday morning by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and charged in the July 28th shooting of Philip Haire in Palm Coast’s L section.
FCSO Corporal Nate Koep says Roberts eluded the United States Marshals Service for a month once an arrest warrant was issued on August 17th.
“Roberts fled to Cleveland shortly after the shooting,” Koep noted. “When the Marshals Service closed in on him in Ohio, Roberts then fled to Atlanta, where marshals again closed in on him.”
It was that pressure that led Roberts to eventually turn himself in to FCSO’s Investigative Services Division, according to Koep.
According to the arrest report, Roberts shot Haire on the afternoon of July 28 on Lewisdale Lane near Lewis Drive.
Per the report, witnesses told FCSO a group of black males were fighting outside of a home around 4pm and that’s when Haire was shot in the abdomen and left on the roadway.
Haire was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Jacksonville for treatment and is fully recovered after being recently released from a rehabilitation center.
Roberts – who will turn 18 in November – is held without bond at the Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Daytona Beach after he was booked at Flagler County Jail.
FCSO hasn’t said at this time why investigators think Roberts shot Haire.
Zaire Roberts (mugshot courtesy FCJ)
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