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Two Lakeland Police detectives are safe, but there are five bullet holes in the unmarked dark blue SUV they were driving Tuesday evening.
LPD Chief Sam Taylor said an 18-year-old with a juvenile criminal record fired more than a dozen rounds at the detectives, “clearly attempting to kill” them. The teen, Arthur Jared Williams, and another man were arrested in Tampa early this morning.
The attempted shooting took place in the 1100 block of Atlantic Road in a neighborhood near Memorial Boulevard and Kathleen Road.
“We are very, very lucky that we’re not mourning the loss of at least one or maybe two detectives today,” Taylor said at a news conference Wednesday. “They were out there doing what we pay them to do. They’re out there standing in the gap between good and evil, as you have heard me say before. They were doing nothing other than their jobs.”
Video evidence: Taylor showed dramatic Ring doorbell camera footage of the shooting.
In the video, a little girl whose image is blurred stands on the front stoop of her home on Atlantic Road as a man walks into the camera’s frame about 10 yards away and raises a handgun. The man, later identified as Williams, aims and fires 15 shots toward the detectives’ passing SUV.
Taylor said Williams knew the two men were detectives because he had spoken to them 45 minutes earlier on Plateau Village Drive, about two and a half miles away near Jesse Keen Elementary School.
“Miraculously, neither detective was struck during the hail of gunfire.”
Lakeland Police chief Sam Taylor
Attempted drug buy: Taylor said Williams approached their parked, unmarked SUV and asked if they had any “gas”— street slang for marijuana. He could see their LPD issued shirts and other police equipment in the car, Taylor said.
Taylor said Williams was not the target of the surveillance. But the detectives, members of the gang crimes unit, left the area since they had been identified as police officers.
Shooting: Later, at about 5:45 p.m., they were driving their unmarked SUV along Atlantic Road. Taylor said Williams spotted them, held up his fingers in a pistol-shooting gesture, then pulled out a real 9 mm handgun and began firing.
“The police vehicle was stuck approximately five times by gunfire, and video surveillance from the area was obtained, which showed Williams firing his handgun approximately 15 times,” Taylor said. “The two suspects fled the area in (a Nissan) Maxima.”
‘No regard for life’: Photographs of the SUV show a bullet hole in the middle of the rear window, one in the front passenger window (which shattered), another above the front passenger door handle, and two more along the passenger side of the vehicle.
The two detectives, who were not named, have been with LPD for five and six years, respectively. Taylor said they were shaken up, and both took the day off Wednesday.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass was appalled at the video.
“That there’s disturbing — a total, reckless disregard of others,” Glass said. “What you just saw, there’s no way to describe that. That’s just evil that has no regard for life. None. This could be in your neighborhood. This could be you driving by with your child … Ladies and gentlemen, if we don’t attack that in our communities, this is the one thing we have got to be doing on a daily basis.”
Charges: Taylor said Williams was known to law enforcement because he had a juvenile record for felony robbery. Williams and the Nissan Maxima driver, 22-year-old Abdul Milik Littles, were found by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies at 1:25 a.m. in an Uber they had ordered to take them back to Plateau Village Drive.
Williams was charged with two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and two counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle.
Littles was arrested on unrelated charges by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. However, Taylor said Littles may be charged in this case, as he is believed to have driven Williams from the scene. Both were transported to the Hillsborough County Jail.
Other LPD shootings: This is the second time in two weeks that Lakeland Police were involved in a shooting. Last week, a Webster man thought to be inebriated rammed his older model Lincoln into two police cars when they tried to stop him. An LPD officer shot at him, but he was not injured. The LPD officer had minor injuries.
In May 2023, 13-year-old Wesley Dalmas was charged with the attempted murder of Lakeland Police Officer Jamie Smith after Dalmas shot Smith in the foot and Smith fired back at him during a foot pursuit. State Attorney spokesman Jacob Orr said Dalmas had a pre-trial conference on Tuesday and another hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22.
Crime rate is down: Despite the high-profile incidents, Taylor said Lakeland remains a safe community. The overall crime rate down, with only one murder last year and two so far this year.
“We have a very safe city,” Taylor said. “I don’t want this to come across as normal for our city because it’s not.”
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Thank God noonwas hurt and LPD git them off the streets. Nay they get the Life sentence they deserve.
Guns without people are not the problem but people who have guns are!