Marissa Valdez was pregnant when she was shot dead

Marissa Leigh Valdez, pregnant, was shot and killed by an African-American man.

Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin is already in custody in Michigan charged with the girl’s murder.

What is not known until now is the motive that the African American had to kill the young woman.

Marissa Leigh Valdez was pregnant and was barely 24 when she was shot to death, in a crime that is still under investigation. The Homicide Division of the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) announced the arrest of a man accused of the murder of the young Hispanic woman.

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The agents of the Homicide Division of the GRPD arrested the young African-American Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin, 24, accused of the murder of the young Marissa Leigh Valdez. His relationship with Valdez is not detailed in Franklin’s arrest warrant, but the defendant faces several charges that reveal the alleged motive for the crime.

Marissa Valdez dies murdered and being pregnant

Marissa Leigh Valdez was pregnant and was killed by at least one bullet in the chest. His alleged murderer is already in custody. (PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico)

The city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a city in the central west of the state and with 200,000 inhabitants, according to the United States Census Bureau. According to that same government office, 15 out of every 100 residents in Grand Rapids are of Hispanic origin.

Last Wednesday, September 8, 2021, at 1:20 in the afternoon, several people called the GRPD emergency number to report that there had just been a shooting in an apartment complex. Some of the people who called the authorities told them that there may have been a person injured by the bullets.

The report of the shooting against the young Marissa Valdez

Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin was arrested and charged with the shooting murder of the young Marissa Valdez and who was pregnant at the time of death. (PHOTO: Kent County Correctional Unit)

Several GRPD agents were dispatched to the Oakview Apartments, located at 1400 Burke Avenue, northeast of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, to take a call from troubled neighbors. The first patrol cars to arrive on the scene, according to the corporation’s statement, ran into one of the departments.

Neighbors pointed out to the GRPD agents the house from where the shooting had been heard and before the commission of a crime, they identified themselves as police officers and forced their entry into the apartment. It is not specified what department number the agents entered where they found the young Marissa Valdez.

The girl was thrown in the room dead by a bullet

PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico

In the department where the GRPD patrols broke into, they found a pregnant Hispanic girl, lying in the living room and wounded by several shots. The girl was identified through her driver’s license as Marissa Leigh Valdez and who was pregnant, although authorities do not specify exactly how long.

Officers tried to provide emergency first aid assistance to young Marissa Leigh Valdez, but all to no avail. Valdez was pronounced dead at the same crime scene. Armed young African-American Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin was also in the house and he was detained for investigation.

What relationship did Marissa Valdez have with her alleged murderer?

PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico

Agents from the Homicide Division of the GRPD arrived at the scene of the crime against Marissa Leigh Valdez to investigate how the murder of the murdered girl had occurred. The arrest warrant for African-American Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin reveals that he knew Valdez, but the nature of their relationship is not detailed.

Neighbors who spoke to officers said that moments before the shooting, a violent argument was heard in the same apartment where the young pregnant Marissa Leigh Valdez was killed. The official cause of the girl’s death was classified as homicide by a bullet in the chest, despite the fact that the murder weapon was fired several times.

Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin is charged with murder

PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico

Based on the investigations in the place, the testimonies of the neighbors and the forensic evidence on the weapon, the agents of the Homicide Division of the GRPD presented charges against the African-American Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin, in the death of a bullet of the pregnant young woman Marissa Leigh Valdez.

Nowhere in the legal documents of the case is it detailed whether Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin was the father of the child that the young Marissa Leigh Valdez carried in her womb. However, Franklin is charged with one count of murder, intentionally causing the birth of a baby, one count of aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a weapon.

The motive in the crime of Marissa Valdez is not yet known

PHOTO: Taken from Facebook

Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin has been in the Kent County Correctional Unit in Grand Rapids since last Thursday, September 9, 2021, to face his trial for the murder of the young pregnant woman Marissa Leigh Valdez and the other various crimes that the authorities.

As of this writing, young African-American Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin was not given the right to face his trial at bail for the murder of young pregnant Marissa Leigh Valdez. So far the exact motive for the girl’s murder is not publicly known in the case documents.

Marissa Valdez, one more victim of firearms

PHOTO: Taken from Facebook

The murder of Marissa Leigh Valdez is one more link in the violence with firearms in the country. The non-profit organization National Archive of Gun Violence, which fights to raise awareness about the dangers of the free sale of firearms, reports that 31,118 people have died so far this year.

As of Sunday, September 12, 2o21 of those people who have been shot dead in the United States, a total of 14,288 were murdered and 16,830 committed suicide. 28,617 have been injured. The country already experienced 489 mass shootings in the first half of the year, where several people died in the same event.

Hundreds of women are attacked every day

PHOTO: Taken from Facebook

There are no reports, so far, in the investigation of the agents of the Homicide Division of the GRPD if the young Marissa Leigh Valdez had any kind of romantic relationship with her alleged murderer, the African-American Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin. However, the corporation did admit that the victim and the perpetrator knew each other.

According to the nonprofit organization National Statistics on Domestic Violence (NCADV), the United States is experiencing a true pandemic of aggression, at various levels, against someone by their partner. Every minute, according to NCADV, 20 people are attacked by their partner in some way.

The pandemic of murders of women

PHOTO: Taken from Facebook

In the United States, one in four women and one in nine men are constantly subjected to violent abuse, causing them physical injury, emotion, trauma and anguish for the rest of their lives and even homicide. Women between the ages of 18 and 24, almost always in their first serious relationship, are the most vulnerable.

The death of Marissa Leigh Valdez by African American Dealeyon Jaishawn Franklin is within the national context of violence against women cases. According to the non-profit organization National Domestic Violence Hotline, one in four women in the United States is in an abusive relationship.

There is help for Hispanic women in need

PHOTO: Taken from Facebook

According to that same organization, every minute an average of 24 people, men and women, suffer some type of violence, rape, harassment and intimidation by their partners. That makes a total of 12 million people a year being victims of domestic violence, as in the case against the African-American murderer of Marissa Leigh Valdez.

The National Domestic Violence Helpline, which can be consulted online, has a series of recommendations in Spanish for people who suffer from partner abuse. The organization explains that there are different types of domestic violence and that the victim must learn to identify them in the event of a tragedy.