Accused shooter in U.S. since 1964
Published 12:02 am Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The Cuban native, who is the accused gunman in Saturday’s shooting in Andalusia, has been in the U.S. since the early 1960s and now faces additional charges in the case, Lt. Paul Dean said Tuesday.
Raul Del Torro, 51, has now been charged with sexual torture, first-degree sodomy and third-degree domestic violence and was being held in the county jail on a $1 million bond.
Now, that bond has been in-creased to $2.25 million total, said Lt. Paul Dean of the Anda-lusia Police Depa-rtment.
There are no new details surrounding the incident that put the unidentified 49-year-old female in Andalusia Regional Hospital’s intensive care unit, where she is recovering from three gunshot wounds. Dean said the new charges stem from the case’s preliminary investigation.
Saturday’s shooting was reported at 7:45 a.m. in the area behind Ashley Furniture Store. Dean said the incident began as a domestic last Thursday and continued through Friday night until Saturday morning.
“The circumstances (leading up to the shooting) remain unclear, as our victim is still recovering from the gunshot wounds,” he said.
“We really don’t know one particular incident that spawned Saturday’s shooting, but it did begin as a domestic.”
Dean said the family has requested that the identity of the shooting victim not be released.
“We’re granting their request,” he said.
“I can say that she remains in ICU and her condition remains the same.”
At last report, the victim’s status was listed as “critical.”
“I can tell you, though, she’s very, very lucky,” Dean said. “It could have ended much differently.”
He said Del Torro said he came to the U.S. when he was 4.
“So that would be in 1964 or so,” he said.
“Apparently, he never obtained citizenship. I don’t know how it’s possible that he was able to stay in the U.S. He has told us he was in the U.S. on a work visa.”
Dean said it is unknown how long Del Torro, who remains in the county jail, had been in Covington County.