Your Florida Daily: Pastor’s son found dead in church parking lot, Volusia affordable housing situation

ORLANDO, Fla. – The son of a Polk County pastor is found dead and his killer is arrested, but detectives are working to figure out the motive.

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, 20-year-old Roderick Wilson Jr. was found shot to death in the parking lot of the Pentecostal Church of God near Winter Haven early Sunday morning.

Deputies said Wilson’s father is a pastor at the church, and Wilson had been living in an apartment on the church’s property at the time.

Detectives said the murder was caught on surveillance video and that they found 22-year-old Taquion “Quan” Cotton near the crime scene after he attacked a woman while trying to force his way into her home.

“So now deputies and detectives are fighting with him in order to get him into custody,” Sheriff Grady Judd said during a press conference.

“But that’s not all. Guess who else was helping us fight and get Quan in custody? Quan’s mother. In fact, Quan bit his mother during the fight. So finally we were able to wrestle him into custody.”

Judd said it appears the 22-year-old didn’t even know the pastor’s son, nor had any reason to kill him.

Cotton has a long criminal history, including 11 felony charges.

The gun he used to kill Wilson has not been found, officials said.

There’s a growing push in a Volusia County city to expand affordable housing.

The mayor of Deltona said even he needs another job to help make ends meet.

“We’re going to have to look at some of these developers that are coming to bring in housing and we’re going to have to tell them, ‘hey, 20 or 30% of whatever you’re building is going to have to be affordable,” Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. told News 6.

Avila said he’s working with commissioners on possible solutions, adding that while the state’s recently enacted Live Local Act promises more affordable housing, it also takes away local government’s authority over rent control and zoning.

A rare African tortoise has been reunited with its owner over three years after it went missing in northern Florida.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said it spotted the African sulcata tortoise wandering alone in Interlachen.

It looked unusual and deputies said they could tell it was a pet because it likes people and head pats.

The African species is known to be great at escaping as they can dig out of enclosures.

Florida’s Wildest Animal Refuge took in the tortoise as they searched for its owner.

Little did they know at the time, the tortoise was someone’s pet - and was last seen in three years ago.

The animal refuge said Facebook followers began sending them a post from 2020 about a missing tortoise in the area.

The two reptiles looked identical and it turns out they were one in the same.

The refuge located the owner, who lived about 5 miles away from where the tortoise was found.

Random Florida Fact

The Coral Castle is a mysterious Florida monument to lost love.

Shapes of moons, planets and hearts carved from limestone, each weighing several tons, are placed around the Miami-Dade park.

The story goes Coral Castle was built single-handedly by Latvian Edward Leedskalnin.

His fiancée left him and after his heartbreak, he came to Florida and built the monument in secret mostly at night — somehow moving and balancing stones taller than those in Stonehenge.

Today, Coral Castle is a privately-owned tourist attraction and legend remains Leedskalnin used reverse magnetism or supernatural abilities to move and carve the stones.