Heather Tyler, 28, of Winter Haven, was arrested Friday in what Sheriff Grady Judd called the “cold-blooded” killing of Joseph Wayne Witherington, 21, of Lakeland, in an orange grove near Alturas. Tyler told deputies she shot him in the back of his head with a 9mm handgun Wednesday after he continued driving erratically after she asked him to quit, WKMG ClickOrlando reported.
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The city of Lakeland plans to hire four more school resource officers to ensure someone is providing security against the possibility of a gunman while the officer usually assigned to the school is investigating a crime on campus or is out sick or on vacation.
The city is negotiating with the Polk School Board to pay 75 percent of the officers’ salaries next year, but one city commissioner said he’s afraid the city will end up paying the full amount of what should be a school district obligation. Another commissioner complained this is just another obligation pushed by the state Legislature without providing any funding. More
The body of Joseph Wayne Witherington, 21, of Lakeland, was found this morning in an orange grove off Mud Lake Road in Alturas by grove caretakers, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office reports. Murder is suspected.
“Preliminary investigation reveals that Witherington was killed and left in the grove by an unknown suspect or suspects,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. His body was found at 7:45 a.m. The nearest cross street is 80 Foot Road. More
A 21-year-old father was shot and killed Tuesday night after getting into an argument with several men when dropping off his 3-year-old son at the boy’s mother house on Jewell Avenue, Lakeland police say. More
The suspect in the Feb. 15 killing of 32-year-old Steven Schelmety at Artillery Motor Sports drove from Miami, shot nearly 30 rounds without leaving his pickup truck and drove back, Lakeland police say. The arrest of Juan Alejandro Vargas Diaz, 28, was announced today. No motive has been given. | Ledger coverage
State Attorney Brian Haas told The New York Times that his office has no plans to prosecute the Lawton Chiles Middle Academy sixth-grader who was charged with disrupting school activities after an argument escalated over his refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. But the article also notes that an attorney for the 11-year-old’s family said his mother is unwilling to agree to prosecutors’ offer to place him in a diversion program.
Separately, CNN reports that the child has transferred to a private school and that his family claims he never used the term racist. Police “interjected the word racist to mischaracterize the event,” the family’s attorney said.
Steven Schelmety, 32, was shot and killed at an auto repair shop around 11:30 p.m. Friday, according to Lakeland police. His wife told News Channel 8 he was sitting at his desk and she was nearby. A person police would not identify was wounded in the incident at Artillery Motor Sports, 3609 Century Blvd., in an industrial area across Drane Field Road from Lakeland’s airport. About 30 bullet holes were counted at the business’ entrance.
Lakeland Police Chief Larry Giddens says his officers were following procedure when they fired into a moving vehicle, resulting in the death of a teen who tried to run them down early Wednesday. But many police agencies, including some in the Tampa Bay area, restrict firing into a moving vehicle, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
The Interdenominational Ministerial Association, representing churches mostly in northwest Lakeland, held a news conference this morning to ask for calm as a police-involved shooting is investigated. The group asks that those who witnessed the incident cooperate with police. Lakeland police officers shot and killed a 17-year-old Winter Haven teen they say was trying to run them over and endangering others gathered in a parking lot at Florida and Memorial around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
