ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said Monday detectives are close to making an arrest in the shooting death of 26-year-old Justin Harper, who was killed on Orlando International Airport property Saturday evening.
Justin Harper was killed at an Enterprise car rental storage lot on Hangar Boulevard. Information about what happened leading up to Harper's death has not been released.
Police said Justin Harper was taken to the hospital, where he died from his gunshot wounds.
Harper's mother, Carolyn Harper, said his job was to switch out tires on rental vehicles stored at the lot.
Justin Harper had worked there about 90 days and had just given his two weeks notice to take another job at a local car dealership as a tech, his mother said.
She said no one from Enterprise notified her that her son had been shot.
The grieving mother wants to know if her son was alone when he died and if his fellow employees come to his aid.
"Part of the process for homicide investigators is to get as much information as they can as quickly as they can and then make the next of kin notifications. That process has been done, whether mom has been part of that process I don't know," Rolon said. "But I assure you as soon as the homicide investigators have additional information, they will provide that. The good news is we have a pretty good of who the person is who was involved and we will be working on trying to find that person, and actually we're working on finding that person at this time."
Monday afternoon News 6 tried to ask Enterprise staff those questions at the Enterprise facility at 8350 Hangar Blvd. but was escorted out of the building.
An Enterprise spokesperson said via email that Justin Harper was not an Enterprise employee but rather the dispute was "between two employees of another company called YLL, which is a vendor that services our vehicles."
Carolyn Harper said her son had no enemies and was always helping people.
He graduated from East River High School in East Orange County.
She said her family doesn't have much and is struggling to pay for his funeral. A family friend set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover expenses.