Law enforcement officers imagine a person killed by police following a carjacking in Winter Haven on Monday was concerned in a drive-by shooting that wounded 11 folks — two critically — in Lakeland final week.
The man, recognized as Alex Greene, 21, was underneath surveillance by Lakeland Police, ATF, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers in reference to the shooting Monday. Officials say they tried to serve a warrant on him in Eagle Lake earlier than he fled.
After an officer bumped into Green’s truck in Winter Haven to cease him, Green carjacked one other car earlier than police say he drove at a Lakeland officer who shot him.
The car Green was in then drove into a close-by constructing. No one else was injured, and Green was pronounced lifeless at a neighborhood hospital.
Green is believed to be concerned within the shooting the afternoon of Jan. 29, which 4 suspects in a automobile opened hearth on a road within the Midtown neighborhood.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office
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“We conducted some surveillance and came up on this gentleman. And I’m not going to be able to go into a lot of detail as to how we got up on him and how we felt like he was involved,” Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor stated at a Monday afternoon news convention. “I will tell you that we are very confident that he is in fact involved, to what extent, we don’t know yet.”
“Had he simply not run from us, not fled, then none of this would have happened,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd stated. “It’s my phrase — we didn’t choose to shoot him, he chose for us to shoot him.”
While the investigation into each incidents proceed, a recording may convey regulation enforcement just a few steps nearer to catching the opposite suspects.
“One of the key pieces of evidence for the incident that happened (Jan. 29) was a Ring doorbell video,” Community Renovation Agency member Terry Coney informed the Lakeland Ledger.
Law enforcement officers say that video helped them establish and observe down the automobile used within the drive-by shooting.
Now Coney — who can also be the president of the NAACP’s Lakeland department — believes that elevated use of such surveillance gear is perhaps what the town wants to reduce crime.
According to the Ledger, Coney and different members of the CRA need to pursue the opportunity of getting extra cameras on the streets of what he calls “blighted areas.”
“It has to be strategic and it has to be something we work with law enforcement to understand where they need it, in areas that they identify,” CRA Manager Valerie Ferrell stated. “Sometimes they only need it for a short period of time and [the cameras] can be moved.”
Despite success previously, not everybody in Lakeland is on board with extra cameras. One metropolis resident, Khalil Majied, informed the Ledger one answer to fixing excessive crime charges comes from human surveillance.
“Someone once told me cameras can capture a crime, they don’t thwart or prevent it,” stated Majied.
CRA member Chrissanne Long informed the Ledger that she understands price will be a difficulty when it comes to shopping for residence surveillance methods. She proposed the concept of a program to assist residents purchase such gear.
Lakeland Police say anybody with information concerning the drive-by shooting can contact Heartland Crime Stoppers Florida at 1-800-226-TIPS (8477) or **TIPS in your cellphone.