Lakeland police tonight apprehended a 25-year-old man who escaped from a patrol car this morning after he was arrested and charged with burglary, police spokeswoman Robin Tillet said. The search for Brandon James Beverly started late morning and focused on the Dixieland and Lake Morton Neighborhoods. More
The case of a Lakeland woman who was arrested when she went to the Lakeland Police Department to turn in firearms she took from her estranged husband’s home has caught the attention of a state legislator. Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, D-Orlando, said she will ask State Attorney Brian Haas not to prosecute. More
A woman arrested Saturday on allegations she stole two firearms from her estranged husband’s home was granted bail Thursday for the most significant crime she is accused of committing.
County Judge Robert Fegers granted Courtney Taylor Irby’s request for bail Thursday morning at the Bartow courthouse as more than two dozen of her supporters — family and friends, church members at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Lakeland and her pastor, Tim Rice — sat inside and outside the courtroom. More
A woman was arrested at the Lakeland Police Department headquarters after attempting to turn over guns belonging to her estranged husband while he awaited his release from jail on bail for a felony domestic violence charge. More
A Polk public schools bus attendant, Juanita Tappin, 43, of Lakeland, has been charged with three counts of child abuse and three counts of abused on a disabled adult. The arrest came after a special needs child reported she had been struck en route to Doris A. Sanders Learning Center.
A man suspected in a Dixieland shooting that sent a 23-year-old woman to the hospital Monday evening turned himself in to authorities this morning after his photo was posted on social media, Lakeland police said. Trayvion Arrington, 18, has been arrested on a charge of aggravated battery with a firearm, according to spokesman Gary Gross. More
SCHOOLS: Hours after the Florida Senate approved a bill allowing public school teachers to carry guns in the classroom, Polk Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd said it won’t be happening here. “The sheriff has not come to me asking to arm any teachers,” she said, adding Polk’s 150 public schools will continue using armed guardians or school resource officers.
RELATED: Sheriff Grady Judd has criticized school districts that decline to arm teachers, saying they are removing a valuable tool to protect children, Fox 13 News reports.
FILM: Check out a showcase of some of Florida Southern College’s best short student films at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Polk Museum of Art.
COUPLE: Before Benny Glass and Jessie Lane opened their Glassroots community farm in Lakeland, they learned about agriculture through a program that offers room and board to people willing to help out at organic farms.
MUSIC: Laura Davis profiles rock musician Michael Ridgway in a new weekly feature called Polk Rising.
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.
ALSO: News Channel 8 | The Ledger
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
