WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Winter Garden police are investigating a man’s death Saturday as a homicide after officers responding to a shots fired call located him on the ground in a residential area off of Plant Street, according to a news release.
Officers were dispatched at around 5:28 a.m. to an address on Mildred Dixon Way, from where the injured man – later identified as 34-year-old Jermaine Anthony Moultrie – was hospitalized and later pronounced dead, police said. Moultrie had sustained “possible gunshot injuries,” the release states.
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Upon identifying a suspect and learning they were possibly in an adjacent residence, officers surrounded the house and initiated a SWAT response, police said. As that response was being prepared, two silver cars exchanged gunfire nearby, the release states.
Winter Garden police later identified the suspect as 31-year-old Jereel Kwmane Lightbourne. A warrant was issued for Lightbourne’s arrest and he turned himself into the Orange County Jail, according to police.
Officers located a silver sedan and pulled behind it before it sped away on northbound State Road 429, police said. The car later crashed into a guardrail and two firearms were found inside, but the driver denied any involvement in either incident, the release states.
The driver was reportedly apprehended without further incident, and neither the victim nor suspect in the homicide were identified by police.
News 6 has reached out to the Winter Garden Police Department for clarification on whether the suspect was the car’s driver.
This is a developing story. Check back here for the latest updates.
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