The Leon County Sheriff’s Office announced Oct. 4 the arrest of a suspect after a man fired a gun into traffic the day before on the eastbound exit ramp at Interstate 10 and Thomasville Road.
“Two individuals, in separate vehicles, were also struck as the suspect, a passenger in an additional vehicle, fired gunshots into traffic,” the agency wrote in a Facebook update.
“One victim, an adult Black male, was life flighted to a hospital outside of the county with serious injuries,” LCSO said. “The second victim, an adult white female, was taken to a local hospital and treated for non life threatening injuries.”
The agency wrote that LCSO detectives and criminal analysts, as well as analysts at the Capital Area Real Time Crime Center, identified a person of interest and determined that one of the shooting victims, the adult black male, was known to the suspect and was the intended target of the shooting.
Jakhari Williams, 17, was subsequently arrested and faces two counts of attempted murder and three counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle.
LCSO investigators worked through the night, following leads, obtaining search warrants and interviewing witnesses.“I’d like to say a heart-felt thank you to our LCSO team and members of the Real Time Crime Center, who worked tirelessly, non-stop, to bring a successful and swift conclusion to this investigation,” said Sheriff Walt McNeil in a prepared statement.
What happened on the I-10 exit ramp?
The broad daylight shooting involving several different cars near the Interstate 10 exit ramp to Thomasville Road left two people injured Oct. 3 and caused gridlock and concern on the north side of town.
Shonda Knight, spokeswoman for the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, said the shooting happened around 5:23 p.m. near the I-10 East, ramp to Exit 203.
“Three vehicles were struck, and two people in separate vehicles were struck,” she said. “At least one of those two was seriously injured.”
She said a man and a woman were hit, the more seriously injured victim was being life-flighted to Shands in Gainesville from the scene and that the other was being treated at a local hospital.
Emergency vehicles from LCSO, the Tallahassee Police Department and Florida Highway Patrol descended on the scene, and quickly launched a manhunt and search for leads for the suspect.
The victims were an adult Black man and a White woman, Knight said, adding one of the individuals was “targeted” and the other was hit by a stray errant bullet. Everyone involved in the incident was inside a vehicle.
Undersheriff Ron Cave said in a video update at about 9:10 p.m. that while the suspect is at-large, “we do not believe this shooting was random… We do believe this was a targeted shooting.”
At 3:30 a.m. Saturday, about 10 hours after the shooting on an I-10 exit ramp injured two, Cave announced in a 48-second video update that the Leon County Sheriff’s Office had executed two search warrants and has a “person of interest we are actively talking to.”
It was not clear where the search warrants had been served. A large contingent of law enforcement and flashing lights can be seen in the video behind Cave., who is wearing what appears to be a bulletproof vest.
If you have information about the incident, call LCSO 850-606-5800.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: LCSO makes arrest after Interstate 10 exit ramp shooting that left two people injured
Reporting by William L. Hatfield, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
