Florida
Man shot and killed by police in Gainsville, FL
Gainsville, FL – A struggle between an Alachua County sheriff’s lieutenant and an 18-year-old Gainesville man on a busy city street ended Friday afternoon with the deputy fatally shooting the man, whom witnesses reported had attacked the deputy and tried to grab his gun.
The shooting occurred shortly before 1 p.m. after a flood of 911 calls reported that a man was on foot and weaving through traffic on the roadway, where he tried to pull at least one woman into or from a car as well as knock out other motorists’ windows, police said.
During that attack, Hanson shot Weeks with his Taser stun gun, but the man got up after being stunned and continued to fight with the deputy, police said. more on Gainsville.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Man Shot Dead at apartment Complex
Jacksonville, FL – Police are canvassing an apartment complex known for violent crime, after a man is shot to death.
Officers were called to the Hill Top Village Apartments, off West 45th Street and Moncrief on the Northwest side Saturday afternoon, in response to an alarm going off.
However, when they got to the complex, they heard several gun shots and saw several people running away.
That’s when officers found a man shot to death in a stairwell. So far the victim hasn’t been identified and no suspects have been named. More on WOKV.com
Man shot dead while sitting in a rental car
Florida Law protects SUV owner who shot, killed woman
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — Authorities do not plan to file charges against a Florida orange grove owner who fatally shot a 21-year-old woman, saying he is protected under the state’s controversial “no retreat” law.
But the woman’s boyfriend faces second-degree murder charges in her death, because the woman was shot to death during an alleged felony — the theft of an SUV.
Tony Curtis Phillips, 29, didn’t fire a single shot. He didn’t even know his girlfriend, Nikki McCormick, was dead until police showed him an online news story.
Police said McCormick accompanied Phillips as he attempted to steal the SUV from a barn in an orange grove near Wahneta, Florida, before daylight Tuesday.
Grove owner Ladon “Jamie” Jones opened fire as the SUV approached him, according to an affidavit released by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Phillips fled; McCormick was shot in the head and later died. More on CNN.com
Authorities said Jones is protected by Florida’s “no retreat” law, which gives him the right to use lethal force if he reasonably believes his life is in danger. Phillips, however, faces charges because police allege he was committing felony grand theft auto at the time of McCormick’s death. More on CNN.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Man killed himself on second trip to gun range
CASSELBERRY, FLorida – Jason Kevin McCarthy, 26, was at Shoot Straight on U.S. Highway 17-92 about 11 a.m. Monday and asked about renting a gun, Casselberry police Officer Joseph Nas said in a report that has just been released. McCarthy was handed paperwork to fill out, “but he stated he had something to do first and left the store,” Nas wrote.
He came back about 5:40 p.m. and that time he filled out the paperwork and rented a 9mm handgun.
No one saw McCarthy shoot himself, but the suicide was verified by a surveillance video, police said. Employee Adam Schulman told police he instructed McCarthy on how to safely use the gun and watched him shoot at his target on a monitor for about five minutes before turning to wait on a customer.
He said he realized something was wrong when another customer pounded on the glass and told him McCarthy had shot himself. More on Orlando Sentinel
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Police say shooting death of 19-year-old was accidental
Tampa, Florida – A 19-year-old who was accidentally shot in the face after a friend said the teen had been playing with a handgun has died, police said today.
John Taylor Weber was taken to Tampa General Hospital on Friday in critical condition. He died about 4 this morning, Tampa police said.
Weber was a senior at Tampa Preparatory School.
Officers responded to 5613 S. Bayshore Blvd. about 4:08 p.m. after a 911 caller advised his friend was playing with a handgun and had shot himself.
Police found Weber and 22-year-old Zachary Daniel Kiely, who lives at the house, in the living room. Investigators recovered a handgun. More on Tampa Bay online
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )2 Florida sheriff’s deputies fatally shot
CRESTVIEW, Fla. – Two north Florida sheriff’s deputies were fatally shot at a shooting range by a suspect who was later killed in an exchange of gunfire with deputies after he fled across the county line, authorities said.
The incident began shortly after 10 a.m. when the Fort Walton Beach Medical Center notified the sheriff’s office that Cartwright’s wife said she had been beaten by her husband, according to a timeline released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the sheriff’s office.
The two deputies found Cartwright at the shooting range and began trying to arrest him shortly before 1 p.m., but they reported that he was refusing to cooperate with their attempts to handcuff him.
At 12:51 p.m. dispatchers received a call that an officer had been hit and began their search for Cartwright, who had left the shooting range in his truck.
Deputies shot and killed Cartwright around 1:10 p.m.
Cartwright had been arrested in November on a charge of domestic battery against his wife, Elizabeth Marie Cartwright, 21, and that the charge was still pending. More on Yahoo! news
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )81-year-old man shot dead his neighbor over dispute
SHADY HILLS, Florida – A dispute between neighbors this afternoon has left a 29-year-old man dead and an 81-year-old man a suspect.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office says John Croft, 17654 Connie Court, shot neighbor Seth A. Sigmon, 17642 Connie Court, multiple times.
Croft has been arrested on manslaughter charges, according to sheriff’s spokesman Kevin Doll.
Croft has been taken to the Land O’ Lakes Detention Center and should be booked in the next few hours, Doll said. More on Tampa Bay Online
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )16-year-old shot dead over argument
ST PETERSBURG, FL — Brian Graver makes a few bucks each week cooking food for workers in the Childs Park neighborhood. His grill is hot and sometimes too are tempers at nearby Childs Park. Some kids go there looking for trouble.
On Tuesday night at about 8:45, a fight from the neighborhood carried over into the parking lot at the Childs Park Recreation Center. Someone pulled a gun and 16-year-old Jawaun Holloway was shot.
“When I heard he had got shot, I was like, ‘Oh my God, is this really happening? Why would they want to shoot Jawuan?'” says 19-year-old Sakia Cooper, a friend from the neighborhood.
Holloway is at Bayfront Medical Center and he’s expected to recover. Police say he was an innocent victim in the shooting who was trying to get away when the gunfire started.
On Wednesday afternoon, police arrested 19-year-old Rayni Adams. He’s been charged with aggravated assault, but more serious charges are possible. More on First Coast News
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Deputies Fatally Shoot Man at Truck Stop
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FL — Three St. Johns County deputies shot and killed a man early Saturday morning at a truck stop near County Road 206 after he pulled out a gun.
The identity of the shooting victim has not been released.
According to the sheriff’s office, a deputy was patrolling the Flying J Truck stop off Interstate 95 and County Road 206, when he noticed a suspicious car.
He ran the license plate and the car came back registered to 52-year-old Rodney Joseph Lasseigne, a fugitive featured on America’s Most Wanted last week in the killing of his 68-year-old mother, Juanita Gibson, in 2008.
When deputies surrounded the car, they saw a man who appeared to be sleeping under a pile of blankets.
After knocking on the car’s window, the man inside pulled out a shotgun. Investigators say he pointed the weapon at deputies. They opened fire, fatally wounding him.
Deputies have not said whether the shooting victim is both the America’s Most Wanted fugitive and the registered owner of the vehicle.
No deputies were injured, and it’s unclear if the man ever fired his weapon. More on firstcoast News
Man dies after shooting family, self
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A Miami Beach, Fla., man died hours after shooting his wife, daughter and himself, police said.
The man, whose name was not immediately disclosed, shot his family before turning the gun on himself Sunday, The Miami Herald reported Monday.
The man’s 14-year-old daughter knocked on a neighbor’s door just before 4 a.m. Sunday, saying her father had shot her and her mother, the newspaper said.
The family was taken to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where the man subsequently died.
His wife was in critical but stable condition Monday after surgery and the daughter was in stable condition, the newspaper said.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )In St. Petersburg, street feud’s sad toll is an 8-year-old girl
St. Petersburg, Florida – For decades young men from Bethel Heights have warred with their rivals from Harbordale. No one even remembers how the feud started. But the city is once again mourning in its aftermath. An 8-year-old girl is dead, gunned down when her home was raked by semiautomatic rifles early Sunday morning. Paris Whitehead-Hamilton wasn’t the target. But she was the only one hurt, police say, when a heavily armed Bethel Heights crew looking for a Harbordale member opened fire on 771 Preston Ave. S.
Stephen Cortez Harper, 18, was arrested hours later by St. Petersburg police on a charge of being a principal to first degree murder. Three other suspects were the subject of a citywide manhunt on Monday.
Harper’s first arrest was at age 9. He now has an extensive criminal record — and a “bh4-life” tattoo. His sister blamed the shooting on those two street gangs.
“They fight just because they’re from two different hoods,” said Lecia Simmons, 24. “This has been going on since I was 13.”
The child’s murder in Bartlett Park touched a raw nerve in St. Petersburg, a city that has long seen more than its share of senseless violence. Ray Tampa, president of the St. Petersburg NAACP, said he’s hearing calls for a march to confront this “stupidity.”
That outrage has also revitalized an old debate: Is the city safe just because statistics say it is?
Pinellas-Pasco Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett likened St. Petersburg to a war zone.
“There is a definite crime problem in St. Pete, and it needs to be dealt with,” he said. “Don’t tell me we don’t have a problem if we’ve got this going on.”
Police Chief Chuck Harmon said he’s outraged, too. But once again he answered that outrage with numbers: “Crime in Bartlett Park is down” he said.
And, the chief said, four “thugs” shouldn’t be allowed to speak for an entire city. “I don’t think anyone should use this to say St. Pete is a war zone or is out of control,” Harmon said. “That’s totally wrong. You can’t define a community by the acts of four individuals.”
• • •
Paris was shot in the back by three stray bullets, police said, around 2:20 a.m. Sunday. She died within the hour at Bayfront Medical Center. More on TampaBay.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Mother shot son, then turned the gun on herself
Casselberry, Florida – Marie Moore, a 44-year-old woman from Florida, has fatally shot and killed her 20-year-old son before killing herself at a shooting range.Marie Moore and her son Mitchell Moore were at central Florida gun range ‘Shoot Straight’ Sunday sharing a firing when Marie killed her and then herself.
According to Casselberry police, a security video at the range shows Moore, who seemed to be getting along fine with Mitchell, walk up behind her son and point a rented revolver to the back of his head. Marie then is seen firing a single shot, instantly killing her son.
She then turned the gun on herself. She put the revolver in her mouth and fired. She died later at a local hospital.
According to the family, Moore had a history of mental illness.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )3 found shot dead inside West Kendall home
Jose and Nolvia Salazar lived quiet lives in their shady West Kendall neighborhood.
The silence was shattered early Sunday when the couple and Nolvia Salazar’s daughter, Karla Valle, 27, were found shot dead in a scene that Miami-Dade police called “domestic in nature.”
Police would not call the deaths a case of murder-suicide, but said they were not looking for a shooter.
Neighbors in the 7400 block of Southwest 159th Place said they believed it was a murder-suicide, with Jose Salazar, 68, shooting his 57-year-old wife and stepdaughter.
If true, Sunday’s killings would continue a morbid streak of murder-suicides, following two others and a third attempted in Miami-Dade County since February.
The shootings at the Salazar home took place shortly before 2 a.m. Neighbor Steve Murphy, 51, said he woke up to the sound of fighting.
”We heard five shots, pretty close together, then about two minutes later another gunshot,” Murphy said. “And then silence.”
Murphy ran outside to pull his barking dog indoors, and called 911.
Police officers flooded the neighborhood, residents said. The sirens and the helicopters buzzing overhead were the first clues most had that something was wrong.
Inside the house, officers found all three people dead.
Sunday afternoon, neighbors said they had no idea what provoked the shootings. Jose Salazar never spoke of any financial problems and bragged about having paid off his cars and the house, said Belkis Barrios, 44, who lives a few houses down the street. More on Miami Herald
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Man shot his wife and himself in their home
Miami Lakes, Florida – The Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce is mourning the violent and disturbing death of its president, David Waud.
According to media reports, police said Waud shot his wife, Carol Waud, and himself on Saturday in their Hialeah home.
Waud was also identified as president of local company Profit Inc.
The chamber released a statement to members Monday, saying directors of the organization were deeply saddened by his death.
The statement called Waud a “mentor, leader, champion of the children’s education and a wonderful human being,” and asked for prayers for the family.
More on South Florida Business Journal
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Riverview woman charged in death of Maine man
RIVERVIEW, FL –
A Riverview woman has been charged in the March 5 death of a man who was staying at her residence.
Tamra Suzanne Leasure, 43, of 12920 Shadow Run Blvd., Riverview, was arrested today and charged with the second-degree murder of Arthur R. Tilley Jr., 57, of Dedham, Maine, according to a release by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Leasure shot and killed Tilley, then placed the gun in his hand to make it look like a suicide, the release said.
The pair was arguing in the kitchen when Leasure used a .38-caliber handgun to shoot the victim three times. The victim was shot in the head, neck and body. According to the release she told deputies, “The third shot was not necessary.”
She then called 911 to report a suicide, and put the gun in the victim’s hand. More on Brandon News & Tribune
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Gun Deaths in the United States 