POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A gunman was killed and two others were critically injured in a shooting in Polk County Thursday, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies said the fatal shooting occurred on Sawfish Drive in Poinciana. A man, later identified as 33-year-old Derek “Ice” Bacote, was killed and two other people, identified as a 30-year-old man and 19-year-old woman, were shot inside a car and airlifted to a local hospital, according to deputies.
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Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said deputies responded to the area around 4:15 p.m., where they found Bacote, who is accused of shooting and critically injuring the man and woman, dead in the front yard of a home.
Deputies said another man was home with four friends in the front yard and four children — 3, 4, 9, and 12 years old — inside the house.
The sheriff said Bacote called him to meet up at his home, to which he refused. According to Judd, Bacote and the man had the same girlfriend at some point in time.
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When Bacote then went over to the home and the man greeted the suspect, he punched the man in the face and pulled out a firearm, saying, “You’re gonna regret that,” Judd said.
In response, someone who lived in the home ran back inside to be with his children and another person retreated into the garage and grabbed a firearm, Judd said. Bacote shot in the direction of the four people, including the 30-year-old man and 19-year-old woman in the car, and a gunfight ensued between the suspect and the person who ran into the garage to get a firearm.
Bacote shot into the car after one of the people started shooting, according to the sheriff.
“We believe that (this) victim actually shot first at this early stage of the investigation because our suspect was holding a gun on the other four people,” Judd said. “(The victim later tells us), ‘I didn’t shoot anybody.’ He’s not being cooperative, but that doesn’t surprise us because our victim is allegedly an associate or a gang member. He just denies everything, which is the normal routine, even though it appears that (this victim) was legitimately standing his ground and protecting himself and these other people.”
Upon arrival, deputies said they found the vehicle was busted through a fence and driven into a house across the street. Judd added that the man and woman in the car, both shot in the face, were taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Two of the three people in the altercation fled the scene, while the man who went back into the home to be with his children told deputies Bacote had pointed the gun at him and someone else, but “he did not see the shooting itself—he ran inside to protect his kids,” deputies said.
“This was a group of friends who were allegedly, by what we’ve been told, in a gang together, so it wasn’t a gang rivalry back-and-forth,” Judd said. “We have one theory that it’s over a girl that dated two of them, and that predicated this. The other theory is maybe some of them were mad because the victim reported some of his quote-unquote friends, who ended up with some very serious felony charges.”
The four children in the home were screened afterward and are now safely with their grandparents, deputies said.
In addition, deputies said they believe that there is no active threat to the community following the shootings.
“I want to make it abundantly clear the gangsters shooting is not going to be accepted even if it results in their death,” Judd said.
No other identities of those involved in the shootings have been released.
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