POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd on Wednesday held a news conference to wish a happy New Year to listeners and “a sad New Year for some shooting suspects,” referencing two drive-by shootings reported in his jurisdiction since 2023 began, as well as a burglary involving a man who Judd described as “the dumbest person on the face of the Earth.”
“So, I have seen some craziness in my life, but if this is the beginning of 2023, we’ve got a lot of craziness to see this year,” Judd said.
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Both drive-by shootings occurred Monday morning, the first at 2:52 a.m. in unincorporated Lake Wales as at least 59 shots between two weapons were fired at a Highland Park Manor subdivision with five people inside, Judd said. Of the 59 shots fired, 30 bullets hit the home and 12 entered it, one of which struck the shoulder of a 19-year-old woman who investigators believe is the girlfriend of a man targeted in a gang-related retaliation of some kind, the sheriff said. The woman was hospitalized in “good condition” at last check and was expected to make a full recovery, according to Judd.
Seventeen minutes later, about eight miles away in Lake Pierce Ranchettes, Judd said a house with eight occupants was hit with 27 of at least 37 shots fired at it, most striking the bedroom. Among the group inside, which included relatives visiting for Christmas and New Year’s, a 14-year-old was shot in the thigh and buttocks and a 12-year-old was shot in the arm, Judd said. Both have since been treated and released, according to the sheriff.
“Did you hear what I said? Did you hear how we started the New Year with a shooting of two children lying in bed?“ Judd said. “...Here’s the headboard where they were sleeping, and you notice that the bullet wounds (sic) are head-high in the headboard? Well, for whatever reason, these kids were sleeping sideways in the bed. It’s a God thing, so that’s why they were shot in the arm and the buttocks as opposed to being shot in the head.”
The people living in that house had just moved to the area from Auburndale, and from Arkansas before that, leading investigators to believe that the shooters meant to fire at a different residence entirely.
According to Judd, an incident over the summer in Lake Wales involved a victim living nearby who had shot and killed another person in “justifiable” retaliation last August.
“They shot up the wrong house. Well, both houses are wrong to shoot up, but they didn’t even hit the target’s house. They hit these poor innocent people who just moved in from Auburndale, before that were from Arkansas, they don’t know beans from buttermilk about what’s happening in the community,” Judd said.
Judd vowed that Polk investigators would find the shooting suspects, but encouraged anyone with information to contact Heartland Crime Stoppers at 800-226-8477. Given the time needed to travel between both scenes, Judd added that investigators do not believe the shootings were related.
“I’ve got detectives that are literally working around the clock and we’re going to find out who did this, you might as well go ahead and make the $3,000 because we’re going to find out one way or the other who did it and hold them responsible,” Judd said.
Judd shifted the conference toward the aforementioned burglary in order to focus on a lighter subject, he called it.
At about 1:10 a.m. Thursday, deputies responded to an alarm triggered by the burglary of a Dollar General in Poinciana, later learning from the store’s manager that the man recorded on surveillance video breaking into the business and stealing a cell phone had visited the location earlier the previous day, Judd said.
The store owner recalled how the man — identified as Martin Garcia — spoke with him about desiring a cell phone and asked about employment, taking an application and leaving the store his phone number, according to Judd.
A Polk deputy even recognized the man from his neighborhood, Judd said, but the search for the suspect lasted through the evening, at least until a 911 hang-up call was received by Polk dispatchers just before 7 p.m.
As it turns out, a woman who was with Garcia had placed the call as the two were in the middle of burglarizing a vacant home, Judd said.
“Our deputies respond to Cardinal Street in Poinciana to a vacant house with a ‘For sale’ sign in the yard. So we’re checking the house, that’s where the 911 call came from, the sliding glass door’s open so we go in and we check it out and voila. There’s Martin, along with his girlfriend,” Judd said.
Garcia confessed to both burglaries, Judd said, and the woman with him confessed to the latter. As for why she placed the call, Judd had to swear that he was repeating what he was told, not making it up.
“She dialed 911 to have a deputy come there to help them move their belongings and take them to the airport so that they could fly back to New York, that they don’t like it in Florida anymore,” Judd said. “Did you hear that? Did you hear that she dialed 911 from inside the house that they’d broken into, so we can help them pack up and give them a ride to the airport so they could return to New York? You’d have to be from New York to do something like that.”
In the interest of not creating “more distractions” in the early stages of the shooting investigations, Judd said further information would be meted out accordingly as the cases develop.
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