A man who was arrested last month in connection with the death of a woman whose body was found at an apartment complex in Fort Lauderdale is facing new charges stemming from a separate shooting, police said.
Altavious Powell, 34, is accused of shooting to death Daneshia Heller, 30, on the evening of Feb. 17 inside of a vacant apartment at the Alden Apartments in the 1500 block of Northwest Third Street, according to a probable cause affidavit. A maintenance worker found Heller’s body early the next morning near a dumpster in the complex.
Powell initially was arrested on a first-degree murder charge in connection with Heller’s death. On Monday, Fort Lauderdale Police said in a statement that Powell was the suspect in a separate shooting that happened earlier the same day of the murder.
Shortly after 2 p.m. Feb. 17, officers were called to the area of Northwest Sixth Street and Northwest Ninth Avenue, in the Sistrunk community, where one person had been shot. The victim was not seriously injured and initially “refused to cooperate or provide information which led to a significant delay in FLPD’s investigation,” spokesperson Casey Liening said in a statement Monday.
Liening said the shooting and the murder were not related.
Additional information about the shooting was not available in court records.
In the murder case, surveillance video showed Powell entering a vacant apartment unit with Heller and him later leaving alone, taking 40 minutes to drag a “heavy object” toward a dumpster, according to the affidavit. Heller was never seen on video leaving the apartment.
An autopsy determine Heller died from a gunshot wound, the affidavit said.
Powell is now facing, in total, charges of armed kidnapping, armed sexual battery, attempted first-degree murder, attempted felony murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, court records show.
He has pleaded not guilty and is held in the Broward Main Jail.