DETROIT – The family of a Puerto Rico native is pleading for answers after he was shot and killed last year.
Joshua Montanez-Rivera was 19 years old when he was killed on Feb. 20, 2020 at 10:12 p.m. The shooting happened near the intersection of Varney and Ackley in Detroit.
Montanez-Rivera is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico and arrived to the U.S. only four months before he was killed. He moved to the U.S. to help his sister with her newborn child and save money to have his parents joint them.
“My brother was an excellent son, excellent brother, excellent uncle. Just a great person,” Yalmares Torres-Montanez, his sister, said.
Montanez-Rivera was with a friend who was responding to his girlfriend’s complaint of unwanted attention from an unknown man. When Montanez-Rivera and his friend arrived, a fight broke out. Gunshots were heard and Montanez-Rivera’s friend saw Montanez-Rivera was on the ground and bleeding. Witnesses were unclear of where the gunshots came from, according to Crime Stoppers.
“He just went over there to help his friend because his friend received a call from his girlfriend and his friend asked if he could just come with him to see what was going on,” Yalmares Torres-Montanez said.
His family is asking anyone with information about the suspect to come forward.
“He was here to help me with my son and we were planning to work together to make some money to bring my mother and my father and my other brothers over here,” Yalmares Torres-Montanez said.
A reward of $2,500 is being offered for information leading to an arrest.
“We just want justice for him. Like, we just want to know what really happened. Who did it? Somebody has to pay for what he did,” Yalmares Torres-Montanez said.
You can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-Speak Up if you have any information. All tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous. Click here to submit a tip online.
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