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‘If You’re Reading This, I’m Dead’: Eerie Note Allegedly Found In Home Of Sex Offender Accused Of Gunning Down Fleeing Teen

Witnesses reported seeing Kyan King, 16,  running through the neighborhood naked, screaming for help before he was shot to death.

By Jill Sederstrom
Teen Shot To Death, Allegedly Fleeing From Sex Offender

A Pennsylvania teen, who was shot to death while allegedly fleeing from a convicted sex offender, left behind an eerie message predicting his tragic fate.

Kyan King, 16, was killed Saturday around 1 p.m. after several witnesses reported seeing him running through the neighborhood naked, screaming for help before a gunman—identified by authorities as registered sex offender Orlando P. Duarte—allegedly tracked him down and fired “multiple shots” at the teen, killing him, according to a statement from police.

Shortly after King was killed, Harrisburg Police officers discovered two notes, scrawled in pink ink, allegedly left behind at Duarte’s apartment.

“This is Kyan King, if you’re reading this I am dead,” the notes said, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit in the case. The notes also went on to also say how much King loved everyone.

Sgt. Kyle Gautsch told Oxygen.com Tuesday that although investigators believe the notes were written by King, they were still working to definitively confirm that.

The incident began Saturday at about 12:55 p.m. when police were called to the area of N. 18th St. and North St. after receiving multiple calls about shots fired in the area.

One witness later told police she had been walking from the corner store with her nephews when she heard a loud scream for help, according to the affidavit. The witness didn’t know where the shouting was coming from but believed whoever was screaming was in trouble.

She heard a gunshot moments later, and then saw a naked teenager lying defenseless on the ground, the affidavit said.

She said she heard the boy let out another “help,” but this time the plea was fainter.

She told police she saw a man—who she was later able to identify as Duarte in a photo array—stand over the teen and fire two shots into the King’s upper body with what looked like a rusty revolver.

According to her account, Duarte realized a witness had seen the shooting and took off on foot as she used her cellphone to call 911.

Another witness told police she had been sitting on her front porch when she saw King walk out of an alley naked around 12:45 p.m.. She asked the boy how old he was and King replied that “he was 16-year-old, had been raped and the male was now chasing him with a gun,” according to the affidavit.

The woman told police she tried to get King a towel to cover up but four minutes later she told police she saw the suspect running east on North St. with a gun in his hand. She said when the suspect saw the teen, he started to fire and she “had to run, so that she was not hit by gunfire,” according to the affidavit.

When police arrived at the scene, witnesses were able to point officers in the direction the suspect—who was wearing an orange shirt—had fled. One officer allegedly spotted Duarte, drew his service weapon and pointed it at Duarte, who tripped and fell to the ground dropping a .22 Smith and Wesson revolver in the process.

He was taken into custody and arrested without further incident at the scene.

King was found lying in the grass nearby with what appeared to be gunshot wounds to the upper right chest, the affidavit stated. He had a pulse but was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.

Gautsch said in an earlier press conference streamed by local station WHP that authorities believed Duarte and King had known each other prior to the shooting.

It is to our understanding that they did know each other prior to this,” Gautsch said at the press conference. “It’s our understanding that this wasn’t just a (happenstance) incident where he was just pulled off the street.”

According to the affidavit, a man who had known Duarte also told police that he had seen King in Duarte’s apartment earlier that day. He led police to the apartment, where they discovered the notes and a pair of Nike slide sandals.

“The placement of the sandals appeared as though someone had run out of them,” the affidavit said.

Police tried to interview Duarte, but he allegedly only told officers that he thought the boy had been 18.

Duarte has been charged with criminal homicide and prohibited possession of a firearm.

Duarte is a lifetime registered sex offender, who was added to Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law registry in 2015 for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

According to court records obtained by Penn Live, he had been charged in two other sexual assault cases in the past. In 2007, he was charged by the Dauphin County Criminal Investigation Division after a 7-year-old boy told authorities he had come into the bedroom at Duarte’s home and was sexually assaulted.

Duarte pleaded no contest to charges of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, indecent assault of a person less than 16 and disorderly conduct in 2008 and was sentenced to six to 23 months behind bars and probation.

He was arrested again in 2010 after police said he repeatedly sexually assaulted a girl between the ages of 6 and 9 who had been left in his care. He was sentenced in 2012 for that incident to four to eight years in prison and 10 years of probation in that case.

He was still on probation and under strict restrictions not to be near anyone under the age of 18 at the time of his latest arrest, Penn Live reports.

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