It was around 7:00 PM and we had just finished wrapping up a Homicide Investigation. Lt. Keough, Det. Bill. Waldron, and myself had been going strong since 10 AM. A guy had been stabbed to death during a drug deal on US 41 behind the old Publix shopping center. We were able to find the suspect and clear the case with a confession of the crime and we were starving. As we walked into Chili's we were ready to eat and relax a little and discuss the day. After dinner we walked out into the parking lot and were standing by our cars discussing what we needed to do Monday. As we stood there we heard "boom,boom,boom.boom,". Lt. Keough said, I don't think those were fireworks guys. Before anyone could say anything there was a female deputy yelling on the radio that there were shots fired and she had a car upside down in the median on fire.
We jumped in our cars and with lights and sirens blaring we drove toward her location which was only a mile away. When I pulled up to the scene I saw the car upside down and still smoldering as deputies put the fire out with extinguishers. Nobody knew what had happened, EMS and Fire arrived and the driver was pronounced deceased, and was also stuck in the car. It was a confusing scene because I was thinking to myself "where do I begin on this one". I was holding onto the hope that the car accident caused the death, then the Florida Highway Patrol would work the investigation. Then I heard over the radio "I got gun casing in the road down here"
I drove down to where the deputy was at and saw the casings on the side of the road. The casings were marked for collection and photographs. A deputy walked up to me and said "is this yours Fitz" I looked at him and just smiled and said "probably will be". The deputy said there were some witnesses up at the Shell station that saw what happened and they were giving statements. I drove up to the Shell and met with the witnesses. They all stated the same thing as I spoke to all three of them individually. They saw the car that was upside down now, stopped in the middle of the road. There were two guys standing on the passenger side of the car. As the witnesses drove closer the two guys standing outside the car began shooting into the car The witnesses told me the car drove off down the road and straight into a tree in the median and flipped over, catching on fire. The two guys doing the shooting got into what looked like a white truck and drove off.
When I got back to where the victim was at in his car, the fire department was still cutting the car apart to get him out. The Florida Highway Patrol was there and so was the Medical Examiner as we were waiting to examine the victim to start the investigation. After an hour of cutting the car apart the driver was removed from the car and placed on a sheet in the grass. As the Medical Examiner examined and rolled the body he stopped and looked at me and said "this one's yours Fitz". The Examiner lifted up the drivers right arm and showed me four bullet holes under the drivers arm pit on his side. I looked at Lt. Keough and said "I'm going to need some coffee
Now that I knew that this was my investigation my gears switched from being reactive to proactive. The only thing was I was already two hours behind. I started handing out assignments to other deputies on scene and some detectives. The first thing I needed to do was head back to where the casings were located in the road. I had already released the Bolo (be on the look out) for the white truck. The shooting occurred at the entrance of a mobile home park for a retirement community. I knocked on several doors attempting to see if any of the residents had seen anything. Nobody had any information that could help me out so I started walking back to the shooting scene. I heard a voice behind me trying to get my attention it was a guy that lived by the entrance. He told me that he had heard the gun shots and looked out his window to see a male running down the road.
He was unable to give me much of a description. I called the K-9 unit to respond to the scene to do a track. I knew we didn't have much of a chance but I wanted to cover everything I could. The K-9 tracked for over a mile on a steady pace until they hit a fence and then they lost the track. On the other side of the fence was SR 70 which was a very heavy traveled highway. The victim had been moved to the Medical Examiners office for the autopsy. The casings were video taped, measured, photographed and collected. The caliber of the casings were 9mm. When I went back to the car if had been flipped back over on it's wheels. The car which was a big part of the crime scene had been burnt and dismembered so I had the car towed to inventory it later. As I walked the around the car I looked in the backseat and saw a gift bag in the backseat. I reached in and took the bag out and saw there was a card in the bag. I just closed my eyes and shook my head when I saw the bag said Happy Birthday on it.
After the scene was cleared the road was opened back up. I was able to obtain an address for the victim and was gearing up to go to the house. I will tell you that there's not much harder than having to tell someone that their loved one was dead nor less murdered. As I made the 15 minute drive to the house I was thinking about the wounds to the victim. They were consistent with him putting his arm up in a defensive manner when they started shooting at him exposing his organs. I was wondering if this was a road rage incident, or if something else happened. When I got to the house it was in a very nice neighborhood. The porch light was on and I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. It was after 2am by now and I knew that whoever was inside was asleep. When the door opened up I took a big breath and introduced myself. A female answered the door and I asked her if she knew the victim, and she replied "yes, he's my husband"
I asked her if I could come inside and speak with her. As I walked into the house two children a male, and female walked out of their rooms. Their mom told them to go back into their rooms. I showed her a picture and asked her if it was her husband and with the 1000 yard start on her face she answered "yes". I placed my hand on her shoulder and told her that I was terribly sorry, but her husband had been killed. She stood there staring at me and then turned around and went straight to the kitchen. I saw on her face that she had just went into shock, as she started making coffee, but was putting kool-aid in the coffee maker. I went over and guided her out of the kitchen and asked her to sit with me.
I explained to her what happened as much as I could and she sat there and cried on my shoulder. I handed her the birthday bag that was in the car. I told her I just felt like I should bring it with me. She then told me it was their daughters birthday yesterday. When he left he said he was going to the mall to get her present since they had a house full of kids and he hadn't got her present yet. She thanked me and hugged me for bringing it home so their daughter would get the present. I set in the house with her for 2 hours talking to her and just being there for her as family members started arriving. I gave her my card and said I would see her later in the that afternoon.
I really had no leads to go on, and had an autopsy to attend in five hours so I headed home to get a little sleep. I knew I would be up for a day or two once I woke up and started hammering away on the case. A couple hours later I was up and hammering at the coffee as I drove to the Autopsy. I had a thousand things going through my mind on where I needed to start. I arrived at the autopsy and observed the Medical Examiner conduct his investigation. The bullets were recovered from the victim and collected to be sent off with the casings for analysis.
The investigation started out slow from the beginning and was continuing to got that way. I found out that the victim worked at a car lot in town so I went there to speak with them. I found out that they paid the victim on the side as he collected late payments for the car lot. The victim was a big guy and could see how he would be intimidating if he came to collect from you. I started wondering if he may have made someone mad by doing this. Then I found out that the victim had made a deal with a guy that had some friends in Mexico. The victim was given $100.000 dollars to get ten S10 pick up trucks and have them delivered to Brownsville Texas. The car lot owner said that about a week ago a cargo truck showed up to pick up these trucks, but they weren't there.
As I continued to investigate I found out that the trucks were for some guys in Mexico, but the victim had taken the money and gambled it away. When the guys from Mexico arrived to get their trucks again they weren't there. I knew right then and there that these guys from Mexico were responsible for this. It was very frustrating investigating this because I knew my suspect whoever that was had fled the country already, and nobody knew anything. I met with the victims wife several times and kept her updated on the investigation. Unfortunately I was never able to solve this case, and as every case it really bothered me. I had become very close to the victims wife and would stop and visit with her children and her even months after the case went cold.
Jose
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