Shortly thereafter, Judd said things went silent and the suspect came out of the house with his hands up. He had been shot once.
Judd said the suspect was taken to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center for treatment. While being treated, Judd said, “he jumped up and tried to grab the Lakeland police officer’s gun, and they had to fight with him again in the emergency room.”
They subdued the suspect and continued treating him.
Meanwhile, authorities on the scene entered one of the homes, where they found an 11-year-old girl shot several times. The girl told deputies there were three dead people in the house. Deputies found Justice Gleason, 40, along with a 33-year-old female and a 3-month-old boy dead from gunshot wounds. When deputies went to the home behind that one, they found another woman, the 62-year-old grandmother of the 3-month-old boy, shot to death. The Sheriff’s Office did not name any victims except Gleason, whose family agreed to release the name.
The 11-year-old girl was taken to Tampa for treatment. Judd said authorities were still searching for another young girl, “about 10 or 11 years old,” but there was no evidence that she was on scene.
Judd said Riley told deputies, “You know why I did this,” and described himself as a survivalist.
Judd said he also told detectives, “They begged for their lives, but I shot them anyway.”
“He’s evil in the flesh,” Judd said.
The incident matches the worst mass killing in Polk’s history. In December 1997, Nelson Serrano gunned down his former business partner George Gonzalves, 69, and Frank Dosso, 35, Diane Dosso Patisso, 27, and George Patisso, 26, at Erie Manufacturing in Bartow.
Serrano was sentenced to death in 2006. But in 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida’s death penalty process unconstitutional and opened the door for Serrano, and others on death row, to be resentenced. He remains on death row awaiting the resentencing.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland Florida shooting: Four people killed including infant
Article Appeared @https://news.yahoo.com/shooter-lakeland-florida-kills-4–164301916.html