Lakeland Police are asking for the public’s help in finding the driver of a 2014 white Dodge Challenger with a distinctive black spoiler on the trunk, saying the driver was involved in a shootout Monday night that left two people dead, including a three-year-old boy and a second 22-year-old gunman.
Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor said Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information about the driver of the Challenger, who fired into a car with a mother, the three-year-old boy, a three-month-old girl, and a male passenger at the Cambridge Cove Apartments off Mall Hill Road just after 6:30 p.m.
The car, bearing Florida license plate number PXPF93, was found by officers abandoned and covered with a tarp. Crime scene investigators are examining it.
View a video replay of the full Lakeland Police Department press conference.
A parking lot ambush
Taylor said the mother, Yeimarie Baez, 21, and her friend Robert Einzig, 23, had been visiting friends at Cambridge Cove Apartments, which is bordered by I-4 on the south, Kathleen Road on the west and Mall Hill Road on the north. The foursome was leaving in a red Toyota RAV4 when the Dodge Challenger pulled in front of them, blocking them in.
Then, Taylor said, Kemarius Wilson, 22, got out of the passenger side of the Challenger with a handgun and approached Baez, who was in the driver’s seat, while the Challenger’s driver got out with a rifle and approached Einzig, who was sitting in the front passenger seat and also had a rifle and handgun.
Taylor said witnesses reported hearing Baez shout that her children were in the car, but it was unclear if the shooters heard her. He said it was possible the assailants did not know the children were present.
He said Einzig grabbed the rifle that the Challenger driver was holding and it went off, hitting Einzig in the lower part of his body.
Einzig fired back with his handgun, hitting Wilson.
Baez grabbed her infant daughter out of the center back seat and fled as Einzig fired back with his handgun and the Challenger driver ran to the front of the RAV4, firing into the windshield with the rifle, Taylor said.
Jaquez Norton, 3, died in the backseat of the RAV4.
Taylor said the two gunmen got into the Challenger and drove south on Kathleen Road, winding up at the home of one of Wilson’s relatives in the 800 block of West 14th Street. Wilson was taken out of the Challenger’s passenger seat, put into another car and driven to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The Challenger’s driver then drove the car to the 800 block of West Crawford Street, parked it between two houses, put a black tarp on it and fled. A patrol officer spotted the car about half an hour later and noticed the tarp not completely covering the vehicle. The officer thought it didn’t look right, got out to inspect it and discovered it was the car for which they were searching.
“The patrol officer did a really good job,” Taylor said.
The evidence and investigation
The Challenger was impounded and a search warrant was obtained. In photographs released by LPD, bloody fingerprints can be seen on the passenger door. The RAV4 can also be seen in the photos, with at least a dozen bullet holes in the windshield.
At Cambridge Cove on Monday night, crime scene technicians gathered evidence and processed the scene. They found 19 .223 caliber shell casings and nine .9 millimeter shell casings. The RAV4 remained parked where the incident happened, with bullet holes peppering the windshield.
Taylor said the RAV4 and the vehicle used to transport Wilson to LRHMC were subsequently impounded and are being processed for evidence.
Multiple cell phones were seized for processing and multiple locations are being canvassed for surveillance video. In all, nine search warrants were obtained in the hours after the shootout.
Taylor said investigators do not yet know the motive — whether it was drug-related or a domestic violence situation. He said Baez, the mother, knew Wilson but did not recognize the Challenger driver.
LPD officials described the mother as distraught.
“This was a horrific night, as you can imagine,” Taylor said. “I feel bad for the parents — my heart goes out to the parents of the three-year-old, but it also goes out to my officers and detectives who have to work that stuff and see these things and my crime scene people that have to see these things. They lose a little bit of their souls, as well, anytime they see stuff like that because they have families and kids, as well.”
Wilson had a history of domestic violence
Taylor said Einzig has no prior criminal history and legally purchased and carried the rifle and handgun. He has not been charged with shooting Wilson.
Wilson had multiple charges for domestic violence in Polk, Hillsborough and Orange counties. A girlfriend filed a protective injunction against him in October in Polk County. It was dismissed.
Wilson also had an arrest in Orange County in February 2023 for battery on a pregnant woman. An affidavit on file with the Orange County Clerk of Courts office shows Wilson kicked a woman, whose name is redacted, slapped her, hit her with a broom handle and pinned her on the bed. It says they have a 3-year-old child together and she was pregnant with his second child. The charges were dropped.
He was also arrested for felony domestic battery by strangulation in Plant City on February 9. That case file is sealed.
During the fight in Orlando, the affidavit shows the woman told Wilson “he would die before he turns 23.”
Wilson’s brother, Cody, was involved in a shootout several years ago and also died.
How to contact investigators
Taylor asked that anyone with information contact Det. Cory Lawson at cory.lawson@lakelandgov.net or 863-834-8975.
If you wish to remain anonymous, you can call Heartland Crime Stoppers at 888-400-8477.
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