Emiliano Gutierrez-Boviall, 13, male, was shot on the afternoon of July 25, 2025, on Sterling Pointe Drive in Greenville, North Carolina. Officers arrived just after 2:30 p.m. to find him gravely wounded; he was taken to ECU Health Medical Center, where he died. Early police updates linked his shooting to a separate teen-involved incident that morning, but investigators said the cases were unrelated beyond their proximity in time.
Family obituary notices later confirmed his age, name, and date of death, and announced services in Greenville.
Investigators said the killing stemmed from an attempted robbery over a necklace worth about $50. According to subsequent charging announcements, two teenagers confronted Emiliano and tried to take the jewelry before the shooting. Police and prosecutors later identified one of the accused as Aiden Joyner, who, after a grand jury indictment, was charged as an adult with murder and attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon. The second suspect was described as a 15-year-old whose name authorities did not release because of age.
Initial reports the weekend of the shooting noted that two people connected to the case were already in custody and that detectives did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the public. As the case advanced, officials said Joyner was being held on a $2 million bond while proceedings continued; authorities maintained that the investigation around the juvenile suspect remained active. Community remembrances and gun-violence registries echoed the police timeline and location details while friends and relatives organized assistance for Emiliano’s family.
Police briefings and local coverage in the days that followed placed Emiliano’s death within a fraught stretch of youth violence that gripped Greenville in late July, emphasizing that the Friday afternoon shooting was distinct from the earlier, unrelated case that morning. Even so, officials called both tragedies emblematic of a wave that demanded swift arrests and continued cooperation between investigators and prosecutors as they pursued the charges tied to Emiliano’s killing.
