Edgewater police ID suspected shooter, 2 dead in hostage standoff at Narcotics Anonymous meeting

EDGEWATER, Fla. – Three people died on Monday after a hostage situation turned into a double homicide-suicide at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Edgewater, police said.

Edgewater police said an armed suspect, identified as 49-year-old Quinton Francis Hunter, took a woman hostage in the 500 block of North Ridgewood Avenue near New Smyrna Beach.

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Police said they were informed at approximately 7 p.m. that a man had been shot at Bridge the Gap — a nonprofit organization — and a woman was being held hostage. Authorities identified the two as Ian Greenfield, 59, and Erica Hoffman, 33.

“It appears from the timeline we have that he had already shot Mr. Greenfield and he’d already fired several other shots before he went live. But he made no comment. He wouldn’t communicate with us. It was just heavy breathing,” police said at a news briefing Tuesday morning.

Others at the meeting ran away and were not injured, according to police. Police said about 20 people escaped the meeting as the hostage situation continued. During the update, Edgewater police said the shooting is believed to be domestic in nature.

Police said the suspect was the ex-boyfriend of Hoffman and they believed she had “formed a new relationship” with Greenfield.

“Mr. Greenfield and Miss Hoffman create some kind of relationship — they didn’t put a label on it right now — but there was a new friendship and we’re working on the details to see if that was the entire motive of Mr. Hunter... jealousy. But I don’t know that yet. There’s still a lot of investigating we have to do,” Edgewater police said at a news conference.

Police attempted to negotiate with the hostage-taker but were unsuccessful. A SWAT team later entered the building and found three people dead, including the suspect, police said.

According to investigators, Greenfield and Hoffman were found with apparent gunshot wounds and lacerations. Hunter appeared to have shot and killed himself, investigators said.

An investigation is ongoing.

North Ridgewood Avenue was closed in both directions for hours during the standoff.

According to the Narcotics Anonymous website, “NA is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem.”

The organization issued the following statement after the shooting Monday night:

The state branch of the organization also released the following statement:

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