Blanca Guzman Bartolon, 30, a Hispanic/Latina woman, was shot to death late on Sunday, September 21, 2025, in the 1400 block of 12th Avenue West in Palmetto, Florida. Officers responded around 11:30 p.m. to reports of gunfire and found her in a driveway, unresponsive from a gunshot wound, according to police statements reported by local outlets and incident logs.
In the minutes before the shooting, Guzman Bartolon had reached out to two friends to pick her up, telling them her boyfriend was armed and behaving aggressively, police said. When the friends arrived, they encountered the boyfriend outside the home; he opened fire toward them and Guzman Bartolon, who was struck and killed as the witnesses fled, according to the department’s news release summarized by reporters.
The shooter ran west from the scene. A search led by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office K-9 team and an aviation unit located him hiding at the Manatee County Fairgrounds. He was taken into custody without incident, and a handgun believed to be the murder weapon was recovered nearby, authorities said.
Police identified the suspect as 25-year-old Cilas Roblero Morales. He was booked into the Manatee County Jail on one count of second-degree murder in Guzman Bartolon’s killing and two counts of attempted second-degree murder for allegedly firing at the two witnesses. Public records and local reporting list the date of her death as September 21, 2025, in Palmetto.
