LAKELAND, FL – Four people were killed and an 11-year-old girl was shot and deputies She was shot early Sunday In a neighborhood in North Lakeland, Florida.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the shooting took place at 4:30 a.m. in two separate homes on the same property.
Good said two separate shootings occurred “in a short time” between law enforcement and suspect Brian Riley, 33, of Brandon, Florida. He said Riley was hit by one bullet and surrendered shortly after. Lakeland police and soldiers from the Florida Highway Patrol also participated. None of the law officers were injured in the shootout.
After Riley was in custody, police discovered the murder of an 11-year-old girl who had been injured “several times”, as well as the murders of a man, two women and a child.
Judd said Riley was a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He spent four years in the Corps before being honorably discharged. Then he spent another three years in the reserves.
Worked at ESS Global Corp. , providing executive protection and security. According to his four-year-old girlfriend, who he lived with in Brandon, Riley had PTSD and was sometimes depressed but never violent.
She said he worked for security at a church in Orlando a week ago and came home saying he could talk directly to God.
Judd said on Saturday evening, Riley was in North Lakeland and saw a man mowing the lawn. Judd said Riley stopped and told the man he needed to speak to the man’s daughter, Amber, because God had warned him she was going to commit suicide. But the man and woman in the dorm tell Riley that there is no one with that name.
Polk County shooting:What we know about the Lakeland, Florida shooting that killed four people
The sheriff’s office was informed of the incident, and a deputy went to the neighborhood at 7:30 pm on Saturday. But Riley was not found. Riley’s friend later told detectives that Riley came home that evening and told her that God had given her a vision that the man’s daughter would kill herself.
Nine hours later, Judd said, a lieutenant about two miles away heard a barrage of gunfire from the original call area. At the same time, 911 calls began to surface reporting active gunfire.
When the deputies and other law enforcement personnel arrived, they saw a burning truck and cracking noises coming from the front yard. When they approached, they found someone who “was completely wearing a windbreaker and seemed ready to engage us in an active shooting situation.” Jude said.
“But we haven’t seen a firearm.”
Judd said the man ran back to the house and lawmakers heard a gunshot, “a woman screaming and a child moaning.”
Judd said the lieutenant tried to enter the house but was immune. He then headed to the back of the house and entered, and exchanged fire with the suspect before retreating from the house.
Good said three MPs in front of the house came under fire from the suspect, and other agents opened fire to help MPs get to safety.
Shortly thereafter, Judd said things had quieted down and the suspect walked out of the house with his hands up. He was shot once.
Judd said the suspect was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center for treatment. “He jumped up and tried to grab a Lakeland police officer’s gun, and they had to fight with him again in the emergency room,” Judd said, during his treatment.
They suppressed the suspect and continued to treat him.
Meanwhile, the authorities at the scene entered a house, where they found an 11-year-old girl who had been shot several times. The girl told the deputies that the house contained three dead. Representatives found that Judge Gleeson, 40, along with a 33-year-old woman and a 3-month-old baby, died from gunshot wounds. When the deputies went to the house behind that house, they found another woman, the grandmother of the 3-month-old boy, 62, shot dead. The sheriff’s office did not name any victims except for Gleeson, whose family agreed to release the name.
The 11-year-old was taken to Tampa for treatment. Judd said authorities are still looking for another girl “about 10 or 11 years old,” but that there is no evidence that she was at the scene.
Judd said Riley told MPs, “You know why I did this,” and described himself as a survivor.
Judd said he also told investigators, “They begged for their lives, but I shot them anyway.”
“He’s evil in the flesh,” Judd said.
The incident coincides with the worst mass murder in Polk history. In December 1997, Nelson Serrano was shot dead His former business partners Jorge Gonzalves, 69, Frank Dosso, 35, Diane Dosso-Patiso, 27, and Jorge Battisseau, 26, at Erie Manufacturing in Barteau.
Cyrano was sentenced to death in 2006. But in 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled Florida’s capital punishment process unconstitutional and opened the door for Cyrano and others on death row to resentment. He is still awaiting execution.
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