Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the shootings took place at 4:30 a.m. in two separate houses on the same property.
Judd said two separate shootouts occurred “in short order” between law enforcement and the suspect, Bryan Riley, 33, of Brandon, Florida. Riley was shot once and surrendered shortly after, he said. Lakeland police and troopers from the Florida Highway Patrol were also involved. No law officers were injured in the shootout.
After Riley was in custody, police discovered an 11-year-old girl who had been shot “multiple times,” as well as a man, two women and an infant dead.
Judd said Riley was a Marine Corps veteran and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He spent four years in the Corps before being honorably discharged. He then spent another three years in the reserves.
He worked at ESS Global Corp., providing executive protection and security. According to his girlfriend of four years, whom he lived with in Brandon, Riley had PTSD and was occasionally depressed but never violent.
She said he worked security at a church in Orlando a week ago and came home saying he could speak directly to God.
Judd said that Saturday evening, Riley was in North Lakeland and saw a man mowing a lawn. Judd said Riley stopped and told the man that he needed to speak to the man’s daughter, Amber, because God warned him she was going to commit suicide. But the man and a woman at the residence told Riley there was no one there by that name.