OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – A man was arrested on Aug. 18, nearly a month after a Georgia man was found dead in Davenport after a carjacking, according to the Osceola Sheriff’s Office.
Tyrell Johnson, 20, is facing multiple charges following the shooting death of 22-year-old Jeremiah Brown, including murder while engaged in carjacking, carjacking with a deadly weapon and grand theft auto, an affidavit shows.
A 17-year-old is also facing charges stemming from this deadly shooting, according to court records.
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Deputies said they found the man shot in the abdomen and “unresponsive” on July 21 near Westside Boulevard and Ronald Reagan Parkway Boulevard after a security guard and witness discovered Brown lying in the roadway “covered in scrapes as if he had been pushed or jumped out of a moving car.”
The victim told the man working as a security guard in a nearby neighborhood he had been shot and was repeatedly asking for his girlfriend, whom he had come to Florida with on vacation, investigators said.
According to an affidavit, as the security guard was approaching Brown, he observed a man standing outside two vehicles parked just south of the victim. When the man saw the security guard, the subject sped off, investigators said.
Detectives said the suspects entered the gated neighborhood by driving around the guard shack through the exit gate. Once inside, the arrest affidavit said they encountered Brown and his rented Mercedes.
Video surveillance captured both the suspect and victim’s cars speeding out of the neighborhood and the sound of a gunshot. The vehicles both stopped on Westside Boulevard just south of where Brown was later found. The affidavit said security cameras also caught one suspect running back to the area where the body was before driving off in the stolen car.
Brown was then taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to investigators.
The stolen Mercedes was later recovered in the Apopka area, according to deputies. A search warrant for the car led to the discovery of a single 9mm casing and blood on the inside of the front passenger door.
Brown’s mother believes her son was targeted as a tourist staying in a vacation rental.
“It seems as if tourist communities where people stay in vacation rentals like Airbnb, that those communities seem to be targeted,” Brown said.
Brown’s mother said she will remember him as a hardworking family man, who leaves behind two children.
“They were eating pizza, swimming in the pool, and less than 48 hours later he was gone,” Brown said.
According to an affidavit, investigators found Johnson has been responsible for at least 11 incidents involving vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles in the Champions Gate neighborhood.
Investigators added that Johnson is a known member of the Apopka-based Veli Gang.
Johnson is currently booked in Osceola County jail where he is being held without bond on three charges and held on a $10,000 bond on a grand theft auto charge.
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