Teen charged as adult in Greeley shooting death of 15-year-old girl, days before her 16th birthday

A 16-year-old boy has been charged as an adult in connection with the shooting death of a 15-year-old. 

Flowers, stuffed animals, candles, and a birthday balloon now sit outside Lily Silva-Lopez's home after she was killed on June 16.

Neighbors like Cici Cardenas were surprised to see this type of crime in her neighborhood.

"I mean it is peaceful, we've had crime before, but nothing like this," said Cardenas.

She was coming home after dropping off her grandson at work.

"I saw the neighbor of the tow truck and I stopped and said 'what's going on' and he said 'oh well the police are looking for you to get the footage from your camera,' I said 'why?' He said, someone got killed."

Cardenas tells CBS Colorado her camera caught the defendant, now known as 16-year-old Jovanni Sirio- Cardona running down the bike path into the trailer park home. 

He then forced himself into the young girl's home through her window, according to the affidavit obtained by CBS News Colorado.

"It just scares me to death just knowing that at 3:30 in the afternoon he ran by here and not knowing that he was going with that intention, that's what scares me," said Cardenas.

Silva-Lopez's 13-year-old brother had told her that the teen had broken into the home. She told her brother to run and that is when he then shot her several times before fleeing the scene.

Police found her body in the bedroom with several gunshot wounds where she died.

"I still get goosebumps, I still get goosebumps," said Cardenas.

Court documents show the 15-year-old had been in a relationship with the 16-year-old for about six months. Things took a turn when she tried ending the relationship just four weeks before the shooting.

Safehouse in Denver says it's seeing these cases more often than usual.

Natasha Adler, director of Survivor Services and Data for Safehouse Denver says at least 10% of the organization's teen youth domestic violence cases end with a firearm.

"What we are seeing too with the fatalities that are existing with our youth offenders and victims, a firearm is being used and they are being becoming more frequent," said Adler.

Safehouse Denver has a youth program where it's offering community education to schools, which is having to do more often now with youth domestic violence on the rise.

This is not the first time an incident like this has happened between the two. Documents show a week prior to the shooting police responded to the young girl's home on reports that the 16-year-old boy had punched her in the face and hurt her arms. 

Her mother adds there many acts of domestic violence from the teen during their relationship.

According to records, when police officers responded to Sirio-Cardona's home, his grandma asked why they were there, he then responded, "he did what he had to do and shot someone."

Jovanni Sirio-Cardona has been charged with murder in the first-degree, a class 1 felony, murder in the second-degree, felony murder, a class 2 felony, first-degree burglary, a class three felony, aggravated robbery, a class 3 felony and possession of a handgun by a juvenile, a class 2 misdemeanor. Those charges have been directly filed into Weld County District Court Division 17.

A Weld County judge set Sirio-Cardona's bond at $2 million.

He is scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. on August 3 for a status conference.