Jarelle Alexis Baez, an 18-year-old Hispanic/Latino male from Reading, Pennsylvania, was shot on May 7, 2023, in the 1000 block of Patton Avenue in the city's Oakbrook neighborhood. He was taken to Reading Hospital after the shooting and was later pronounced dead there. His death came during a violent stretch in Reading that included multiple shootings over the same weekend, but his case centered on a confrontation that unfolded while he was inside a vehicle.
According to the charging
information reported in connection with the case, Jarelle was in the vehicle when two men dressed in black approached. The encounter quickly turned deadly. He was shot multiple times, and the wounds proved fatal despite his being transported for emergency medical care. What began as a late-day moment in a residential neighborhood became a homicide investigation, leaving police to piece together who approached the vehicle, what led to the shooting, and who fired the shots.
Nearly a year later, authorities charged 22-year-old David Maestre-Baez in connection with Jarelle's death. Maestre-Baez was booked in Berks County on March 8, 2024, and the charges listed against him included first-degree murder, third-degree murder, aggravated assault, firearms not to be carried without a license, person not to possess a firearm, receiving stolen property, and theft by unlawful taking. The murder charges accuse him of being responsible for the fatal shooting, while the related weapons and property charges suggest investigators also tied him to firearms and stolen-property allegations around the time of his arrest.
Publicly available records identified Maestre-Baez as the named suspect charged in the homicide, but they did not show a reported conviction or final trial outcome in the sources located. The booking record also stated that the charges reflected an arrest and did not establish guilt, meaning the case remained subject to the court process unless later records show a plea, verdict, or sentencing. No other named suspect was clearly identified in the publicly available records reviewed, though the account of two men approaching the vehicle indicates investigators believed more than one person may have been involved in the events immediately preceding the shooting.
After Jarelle's death, family records and memorial pages described the life left behind rather than only the violence that ended it. He was remembered as the son of Vivian Arndt and Alexis Baez, with siblings, relatives, and friends mourning him in Reading. His funeral services were held later that month, followed by burial at Laureldale Cemetery, while the criminal case against Maestre-Baez became the clearest public sign that authorities had moved from investigation to prosecution.
