LaRoyce Jermaine Covington Sr., 40, was shot and killed on July 21, 2021, in DeLand, Florida. He was found with multiple gunshot wounds on East Walts Avenue around 11:08 p.m. and died while being transported to the hospital. Family and friends remembered him as a devoted father and cherished friend.

Responding officers say Covington identified his shooter in his final moments, naming 16-year-old Kveon Asun Jiles and telling officers that Kveon shot him. A firearm described as an AR-15 pistol was later recovered disassembled in a bag by a fisherman at Blue Lake near DeLand about a month after the shooting; investigators tied that weapon to a theft from an SUV at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa earlier that year.

The case raises questions about the path from the weapon’s recovery to establishing who fired it and how the dying declaration was handled in court. If anyone knew LaRoyce, his movements that night, or saw anything unusual near East Walts Avenue or Blue Lake, please share what is known.