A group of agents from the Ponce Criminal Investigations Corps (CIC) has been assigned to interview people who knew teacher Cecil Lewis Matías, 49, as part of the investigation into his killing on Tuesday afternoon in Santa Isabel. According to information on the probe, two individuals shot the teacher on Monserrate Street using a handgun and an assault rifle.
Lewis Matías had just left a residence where he had gone to pick up a donation of items for a hospice. The gunfire was heard in the town center and alarmed residents. When agents arrived, they found the body on the pavement near the victim’s vehicle.
The crime has caused shock in Santa Isabel, where residents have described the educator on social media as someone dedicated to helping others. Santa Isabel Mayor Meldwin Rivera Rodríguez also said he was shocked by the killing. Lewis Matías worked for more than a decade at a school in the Playita Cortada neighborhood.
Agents will seek to examine security camera footage near the scene and elsewhere in the municipality. Lewis Matías held a license to carry weapons, but they were at his home when he was killed. Authorities have not disclosed a motive.
Last March, Lewis Matías appeared with other teachers before the House of Representatives Education Committee, where they argued that the Education Department had taken excessive precautionary measures against several of them.