DELTONA, Fla. – A man was fatally shot Saturday night while offering to help a motorist who was stranded in a ditch, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
The victim, 60-year-old Carlos Cruz, heard a stranger having car trouble near his home on Puritan Street in Deltona around 8 p.m. and offered to help by getting his truck to free the car from the ditch where it was stuck, according to a news release.
Instead, someone in the car fatally shot Cruz and stole his truck, deputies said. The car, which had been reported stolen, was left in the ditch.
Cruz was the brother-in-law of Volusia County Sheriff's Office employee Edgar Burgos. He was an Army veteran and had been married for 34 years.
"If you needed something and he had it, he would give it to you,” Burgos said. “Knowing him, I bet he went over there to see if they needed help.”
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood authorized the $10,000 reward in an attempt to help get justice for Cruz's family.
“We owe it to Mr. Cruz and his family to find the ruthless, cold-blooded killer or killers who took his life,” Chitwood said. “It takes a special kind of evil to gun down a stranger who is only trying to help you. And anyone who knows something and stays silent is complicit in this heinous act.”
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida at 888-277-TIPS, visit westopcrime.com or via the app available for download at the website.
Tipsters can also call 386-248-1777 to reach the VCSO Communications Center and speak to a dispatcher.