Lakeland Man Who 'Shot in the Air' While Driving Charged With 4 Counts of Attempted Murder

A 25-year-old Lakeland man is under arrest after allegedly shooting at three Polk County sheriff’s deputies and a fourth person early Sunday morning.

PCSO Deputy Juan Sanchez had responded to the Wendy’s at 1910 W. Memorial Blvd. at about 1:45 a.m. Sunday following an armed robbery. As Sanchez was talking to a witness, he heard a burst of gunshots and yelled to two other deputies, “Hey, drive-by, drive-by!”

Sanchez spotted a white, two-door Ford F-150, got into his patrol car and chased it. The two other deputies also responded and intercepted the truck at Wabash and Memorial Boulevard.

They arrested Oscar Andres Carrillo without incident. As they were putting him in handcuffs, Sanchez wrote in the report, Carrillo said, “It was me, I’m sorry, I f—ed up.”

Sanchez said he could see a spent shell casing on the passenger seat and a black handgun lying on the floorboard, its grip sticking out from underneath the passenger seat.

In addition, eight spent shell casings were located on the westbound lane of Memorial Boulevard near the Wendy’s fast food restaurant where the deputies were conducting the armed robbery investigation.

Sanchez wrote that Carrillo told him he was on his way home and decided to shoot his Glock 43 9mm black gun out the window. Carrillo allegedly admitted that he shot approximately five to six shots out of his vehicle into the ground, but said he didn’t know law enforcement was in the area.

“[Carrillo] advised he does not know why he decided to shoot out of the vehicle.”
PCSO incident report

A friend of Carrillo’s allegedly told detectives that he was following Carrillo home on Memorial Boulevard when he saw Carrillo shoot at least three times into the air, but he did not know why.

“According to all deputies involved, they were in fear for their lives and believed that the suspect was shooting at them in an attempt to cause harm to them,” Sanchez wrote.

It is not clear if the shooting was related to the armed robbery.

“Fortunately, none of the gunshots fired in their direction hit any deputies, the citizen, or anybody else who happened to be in the vicinity,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. “This guy is the poster-child for why ignorance and firearms don’t mix.”

Carrillo is charged with: