PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A West Palm Beach mom turned to WPTV as she seeks accountability in her son's death. Was the man who fatally shot Rolando Victorero "standing his ground" under Florida's self-defense law?
The WPTV investigation team looked into whether law enforcement made the right call. The mother of the man who was killed claims the gunman should be charged in her son's death.
WATCH: WPTV looks into whether law enforcement made right call
Rolando Victorero's mother points to video footage, which we obtained from her attorney. It appears to show Kelvin Fajardo, the man who shot her son, while Victorero was fleeing from the gunfire.
Florida's "stand your ground law" allows people to use deadly force in self-defense if they believe their life is at risk.
The 911 incident reports claimed Victorero and the man who shot him were in an escalating dispute involving the mother of Victorero's two children.
Their dispute came to a head in December 2023 in the parking lot of a nightclub near West Palm Beach, where the man who shot Victorero worked as a DJ.
This video showed Rolando Victorero entering from the right side of the screen, approaching Kelvin Fajardo outside Club Ivy. Fajardo then shoots Victorero.
Victorero turns and runs, and Fajardo appears to follow him, firing off more shots.
The incident report stated that one shot hit Victorero in "the liver and heart sac" while a second shot, "entered back left shoulder, hitting the left rib, left upper lobe of the lung including the spinal column … the trajectory was back to front." The report said a third shot "entered left heel of left foot."
Paramedics took Victorero to the St. Mary's Medical Center emergency room for treatment, but less than three hours after the shooting, Victorero was pronounced dead.
"It's like a nightmare. It's very hard to see that," said Rolando's mother, Yvonne Victorero.
She thought Fajardo would be charged with murder in the fatal shooting.
Fajardo was led away from the scene in handcuffs but was later released from custody.
"He wasn't taken to jail, nothing," Yvonne Victorero said.
Fajardo was never charged in the shooting.
After an investigation, Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies concluded Fajardo was justified under Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which allows people to shoot in self-defense if they fear their life is in danger.
"My immediate reaction when I saw it was that it was a homicide," Victorero's attorney Gregg Lerman said.
Lerman is best known in legal circles as a defense attorney, where he says he has defended 21 homicide cases in Palm Beach County.
After watching the video, Lerman said he'd be hard pressed to defend Fajardo's actions.
"This individual chased him down and just shot him, like he was a bad dog," Lerman said. "I thought that was at a minimum manslaughter if not second-degree murder."
WPTV offered the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and the State Attorney's Office the chance to defend their decision to call this a Stand Your Ground case and not arrest or prosecute Fajardo. However, both agencies declined an on-camera interview.
But WPTV found communications and paperwork that showed their reasoning.
According to the sheriff's office report, in the days leading up to the confrontation, Rolando Victorero emailed Fajardo.
The incident report said Victorero wrote: "I warned you to stay away from my kids."
Rolando Victorero also emailed Fajardo: "Ain't no one gonna stop me from whooping you when I see you. … keep thinking ... until I make you disappear … just fight me … let me get some anger out on you."
The investigation concluded that "Kelvin Fajardo actually believed that the danger was real ... because of threats or prior difficulties with Rolando Victorero, (Fajardo) had reasonable grounds to believe that he was in danger of death or great bodily harm … and the use of deadly force was justified."
WPTV showed the shooting video to Jason Weisser, a former prosecutor, who said the state attorney could still file charges against Fajardo, counter to the recommendations of detectives with the sheriff's office.
"This is egregious enough behavior that this should have been prosecuted," Weisser said.
Weisser, who once worked as an assistant state attorney in Miami-Dade County, looked at the video and the report that found the trajectory of the second and third gunshots was from back to front.
"It's really hard to sit there and say he's standing his ground when this guy's 20 feet away and running for his life and you're shooting him in the back," Weisser said.
Aleathea McRoberts, the state attorney who looked into the case, emailed Ivonne Victorero's attorney and said the following:
"PBSO has closed the case and I agreed with their decision to do that based on the history of stand your ground, the facts of this case, (and) the entire history of stand your ground precedents. ... The shooter merely had to have had a reasonable basis to believe he was about to suffer a forcible felony such as aggravated battery. ... It is arguable that there was any 'fleeing.'"
FAJARDO ARRESTED TWICE AFTER FATAL SHOOTING
But the story doesn't end there.
In December 2024, deputies charged Fajardo with written threats to kill or do bodily harm and aggravated stalking.
According to the arrest report, Fajardo threatened the mother of Rolando Victorero's daughters.
The arrest report said Fajardo texted her, "Today is the day you die," and "I'm sure your baby daddy would [be] glad to see you."
Fajardo pleaded not guilty to the charges.
And earlier this year, deputies also charged Fajardo with aggravated battery with a firearm from an August 2024 shooting.
According to the arrest report in that case, the shooting happened near the same shopping center and nightclub off Military Trail where he shot and killed Rolando Victorero.
The police report said that at a business in the shopping center, "Fajardo was arguing with another male … (and another man) attempted to de-escalate the situation."
According to deputies, Fajardo, "struck (the man) on the side of the head … and brandished a black handgun and … fired two shots where (the man) was grazed by a bullet in his groin area."
Fajardo has pleaded not guilty to these charges as well.
The report also states Fajardo used the same gun deputies gave back to Victorero after concluding he shot and killed Rolando Victorero in self-defense.
"I think this is an extremely dangerous individual," Lerman said.
Rolando Victorero's mother wishes Fajardo had been charged in her son's shooting death.
"I don't understand why they call it self-defense," Yvonne Victorero said. "They closed the case, that was done, that was it."
WPTV attempted to get Fajardo's side of the story when he was in court for a hearing on one of his court cases. He did not want to comment, and his lawyer has not returned our calls.
Paperwork shows Fajardo was ordered to surrender his pistol.
Yvonne Victorero has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Fajardo, as well as the owners of the nightclub and the shopping center where her son was shot to death.
