The Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) and Leon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) have investigated a series of incidents involving firearms in the past seven days. As a result, seven reported shootings resulted in several injuries and two deaths.
Three of the shootings occurred within a span of two hours on Sunday, April 24th, 2022.
The first shooting occurred on April 24th, around 1:30 a.m. at McKeithan Street and West Tennessee Street. TPD was nearby at Café Shisha when they heard shots fired, and people began running down McKeithan Street. Officers found that bullets had struck two unoccupied vehicles, there were no injuries reported, and no arrests were made.
The second incident occurred Sunday around 2:03 a.m. in a parking lot on 2810 Sharer Road. As TPD responded, officers reported two vehicles chasing each other and shooting, and the officers began following the two vehicles.
One of the cars managed to escape, while the other car crashed into the retention pond at the I-10 ramp at Thomasville Road. Three arrests were made at the scene, Khalid Mercer, 21, for resisting arrest without violence; Traquan Cooper, 20, for resisting arrest without violence and Courtney Sanders, Jr., 19, for fleeing and eluding and resisting arrest without violence.
TPD reported the three suspects did not tell the police who was in the other car. There were no injuries reported involving the incident.
That same morning around 2:45 a.m., just south of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and West Gaines Street, gunshots were heard by TPD officers who were on regular patrol in the area. Officers did locate shell casings; however, no injuries were reported. Also, there are no suspects in the case, and no arrests have been made.
Then, on Sunday, around 3:30 a.m., a fourth shooting occurred at the 200 block of Dixie Drive. A teenage female was reported to be shot and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. According to the report by TPD, friends of the victim reported the shooting resulted from an argument that escalated. “The suspect and victim are known to each other, and all parties involved have been identified,” the report says. No arrests have been made in the case.
The next shooting occurred on Monday evening, April 25th, around 8:30 p.m. near the 2900 block of Prospect Street. TPD officers responded to the scene and found a man seriously injured from a gunshot wound. The investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made.
Later in the week, on April 27th, the LCSO responded to calls made by a woman who said her daughter stole her car and a shotgun. The next day the woman called again, stating her daughter had returned home to the 1200 block of Waterfront Road in northeast Leon County.
When LCSO deputies arrived on the scene, the woman’s daughter, 39-year-old Terri Bennett, began shooting at them. Bennett returned to the stolen car as she continued to fire at deputies. Around 2:00 p.m., the deputies attempted to retrieve Bennett from the vehicle by deploying tear gas, said spokesperson Angela Green. That is when Bennett turned the firearm on herself and suffered a lethal self-inflicted gunshot wound. Bennett was pronounced dead at the scene.
Green stated the case is still open and under investigation.
Lastly, another incident occurred just after midnight Friday, April 29th, in the Providence neighborhood. According to the police report, TPD officers responded to the 1500 block of Lake Avenue near Lake Bradford Rd in the Glen Hollow apartment complex. Officers found a woman dead in the driver’s seat of a vehicle in the parking lot.
It was reported that shortly after gunfire was heard, nearby patrolling officers witnessed a vehicle “fleeing at a high rate of speed.” As a result, TPD officers initiated a “high-risk traffic stop” and arrested Jhakare Wesley, 19-years-old.
A TPD investigation determined the shooting resulted from an argument over an illegal drug sale, where the arrestee subsequently fired multiple rounds into the victim’s vehicle and then fled the scene. The victim, an adult female, died from her injuries.
Westly has been charged with first-degree murder and possession of cocaine.
Additionally, in the week prior, there were two shootings on Tuesday, April 19th, occurring between 9:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.
A man checked into a local hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound in the first incident. Unfortunately, the victim was uncooperative and would not give details to help an investigation.
According to police reports, the second incident happened around 11:30 p.m. that same evening when one man was shot during what seemed to be a drive-by in the 800 block of Floral Street. The man was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Again, no arrests have been made in connection with this shooting.
Tallahassee: A Week of Gun Violence, Two Deaths added by Lynsey Kirk on
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Move out of Tallahassee. If you haven’t already. it’s just insane there.
@Hope. It’s the voters that keep this city the way it is. Them and the guilt ridden apologists. The same ones that voted for Obama and Brandon.
Democrat run city: Police Officers will continue to be reactive instead of proactive until the “leaders” of the community decide to back the police and take a stance against criminals.
The first step in solving a problem is admitting you have one.. and Tallahassee has one.
Defund the police, deify the criminals, open the prison doors so the animals can run free, let Soros pick your Prosecutors, and import hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens… what could go wrong?
… that’s Biden’s America for ya
I hear gunshots nearly nightly. The nights I do not are few and far between.
My neighborhood was a white working class area from the 1950/60’s.
The feds put in the Orange Ave projects in 1982? and things changed.
Now I have a couple of LEO’s who stop by to see if we are ok and let us know the current situation.
Gunshots nearly every night. Two nights ago a car with loud exhausts came in, five shots then exhausts as they sped away.
I have to watch my back in my own yard. Many times I have had police here chasing and searching. I have welcomed them.
Matlow and the other commissioners want all of us to experience this for their fantasy city of diversity.
None are willing to face the reality of what this means.
I live their reality.
I am sick of it and when I get to the point I can sell and escape, I will.
If I could force the Commissioners to spend a couple of nights here, I would. They would probably still deny reality.
If they spent a half hour at the McDonalds at South Monroe and Orange, they might not make it out alive on a Saturday night.
Liberal paradise it is, though they do not live in it.
@ Barb…
Until I hear David Bellamy publicly state that he was against Blueprint infrastructure funds going to Doak Stadium and publicly denouncing it he may as well be for it.
He was asked on this forum and refused to answer.
Also Bellamy illegally placed campaign signs at the Capital Circle and Mahan intersection that obstructs pedestrians bicycles and vehicles.
Hope,
I just don’t agree with you that the Blueprint infrastructure funds issue is more important than:
1. pre-born babies: Matlow misused his office to, apparently, try to influence State lawmakers to vote against the 15 week abortion bill.
2. law and order: Matlow did all that he apparently could do to fight the anti-riot bill so that the Governor would not be able to force the City of Tallahassee to fully fund the police.
3. woke madness: Matlow’s support of Aramis Ayala for Attorney General and his association with Anna Eskamani is alarming.
Finally, in an article in Florida Politics dated 3/31/22, David Bellamy said he did not think the Blueprint funds should have gone to Doak Campbell Stadium. BTW, he said this at a campaign event he had which was attended by Erwin Jackson.
I don’t know what he will do if he is a City Commissioner. I know what Jeremy Matlow has done with the position and I am repulsed.
I agree with you, Hope, on many of your positions but not this one.
The point of this story is you need a gun. Actually, you need a few guns. As long as the City is hell bent on restraining the police force while bending over backward for the criminals it will never change. Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization full of corruption and criminal behavior. Yet the city paints BLM across the street. That reinforced their bad behavior.
My wife and I have lots of guns, some for hunting, some for collector value and some exclusively for self defense. A cop can be an hour away. We have taken our safety seriously. If you are the victim of a home break in, you have seconds to grab your gun and protect yourself. Same thing in the parking lot, an attacker holds all the cards. You will have only seconds to get your pistol and defend yourself.
Good luck City of Tallahassee residents and visitors, crime is on the march. a 19- year old, 20- year old and a 21- year old shooting at another car. Those three criminals have already determined their futures. All the money in the world isn’t going to save them.
Just like homelessness, the City has people on the payroll to deal with the problem that, not only hasn’t been solved, it hasn’t even improved. Visit a gun store, get concealed carry training and a get a permit. The gangsters, and you know the vast majority is in the Black community, are all being raised on the streets and have no value for life. Maybe a few escape, but crime in their community is growing and they bear the responsibility for solving it. I heard that 72% of blacks, today, intend to vote for a Democrat. There is your problem.
Barb,
I am perplexed so maybe you can help me out here… David Bellamy is supposedly a police officer, a previous contributor to Scott Maddox, which raises questions on how he was able to get on the police force, and was FOR the 27 million dollars earmarked for Blueprint infrastructure funds going to Doak Stadium.
Blueprint infrastructure funds qualify to go to law enforcement. So diverting funds from monies that can go to law enforcement instead go to stadium seats, isn’t that a backdoor way of defunding the police?
The Governor signed an anti-riot law last year in response to the 2020 summer riots. The law allows the Governor to prevent local governments from defunding the police.
The City of Tallahassee Commission unanimously voted to file a lawsuit to fight this law. “This law is largely a solution looking for a problem,” said Commissioner Jeremy Matlow. He went on to say, “Unfortunately, in its search for a problem it has overstepped its boundaries into our local control of our budget.”
Thank you Governor DeSantis and State Republican lawmakers for doing what you can to protect us from crime and our local crime enabling City Commissioners and Mayor.
what about all the other violence? Why so much focus on one weapon? I show more than 100 assaults, batteries, robberies, sexual assault calls in the last week.
Lets say we stop 7 shootings. What next?
190 days until Florida midterm elections… there is hope for Tallahassee…
Voters will fire Mayor Dailey, County Commissioners Nick Maddox and Bill Proctor, and City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox…