LAKELAND, Fla. – Lakeland police have announced the arrest of a man accused of “clearly attempting” to shoot and kill two detectives on Tuesday.
Arthur Jared Williams, 18, faces two counts of attempted second-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and two counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle, Lakeland police Chief said Sam Taylor at a news conference.
The two detectives were conducting surveillance around 5 p.m. in the 1800 block of Plateau Street when Williams walked up to the detectives’ vehicle before looking inside and asking the detectives a question, at which point the officers — realizing they had been compromised — took Williams’ photograph and drove away, Taylor said.
By 5:47 p.m., the detectives were patrolling in the 1100 block of Atlantic Avenue when they encountered Williams again, as well as another man with him. The other man was identified as 22-year-old Abdul Littles, the registered owner of a red Nissan Maxima that the detectives had also seen and photographed back on Plateau Street.
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“They saw the same red Nissan Maxima sitting in the roadway. Williams and Littles were standing next to it. As the detectives drove past them, Williams pointed his finger at the detectives, simulating the firing of a gun as the detectives approached him in their vehicle. After passing them, one of the detectives looked in the rear-view mirror to see Williams holding a handgun. Williams then started shooting directly into the detectives’ vehicle,” Taylor said.
Out of a reported 15 shots fired, five of them struck the detectives’ vehicle, yet the officers were not hit, according to the police chief.
The shooting sparked a manhunt that ended early Wednesday in Hillsborough County, as Taylor said Williams and Littles were located around 1:30 a.m. at a residence in Tampa that they attempted to ride away from in an Uber.
“In the Uber, a traffic stop was performed and the two were taken into custody without incident. The Uber driver was extremely cooperative and it was learned that the two were headed back to an address on Plateau Street in Lakeland,” Taylor said, adding Littles was arrested on an unrelated marijuana-possession charge.
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