POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Two business partners are dead after a dispute led to the men shooting each other, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said the shooting happened Thursday at a business on U.S. 92 east in Lakeland, near Fish Hatchery Road.
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Deputies identified the men as Akeido Bennett, 31, and Xavier Figueroa, 39, both of Kissimmee. While Bennett died at the business, Figueroa tried to flee the area in his truck; he died sometime later, deputies said.
Deputies believe the shooting was the culmination of an ongoing dispute between the two business partners.
“We all have an obligation to our friends, our families, and society at large to talk things out instead of turning to violence,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. “These men would still be alive today, and their families would not be grieving, had they been able to work out their differences civilly.”
The sheriff’s office said it is still investigating the shooting.
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