Shooting claims life of 16-year-old

Ocala Police Department investigates the shooting of a 16-year-old at Sutton Place Apartments on Thursday night. [Submitted}

Ocala Police Department investigates the shooting of a 16-year-old at Sutton Place Apartments on Thursday night. [Submitted}

It is the third shooting death of a teen linked to the complex since December.

The latest shooting was reported just before 9:30 p.m. at the complex, 523 NE 23rd Circle. When officers arrived, they found the injured 16-year-old and attended to him until emergency workers reached the scene. He was taken to the hospital where he died just after midnight, according to OPD reports.

Officials were not immediately releasing the teen’s name, pending notification of family.

The shooting death is the second in the complex in recent months. Chris “Chevy” Chevelon was shot at Sutton Place on Dec. 6. He was 15.

Kobe Bradshaw, 18, was shot on June 8 in Ocala Park Estates and died later at a hospital.

Investigators believe Bradshaw was involved in Chevelon’s shooting, according to a state attorney’s report.

Witnesses told investigators they believed Chevelon was shot in retaliation for Bradshaw being shot earlier in 2020. On June 29, 2020, Bradshaw was shot at Tuscawilla Park but survived his injuries. Chevelon was a suspect in that shooting, according to the memo.

Investigators lacked sufficient evidence to bring charges in Chevelon’s death.

It is not clear if Thursday’s shooting was related to the previous incidents, but it is the latest in a series of shootings involving young people.

On June 10, two teenagers suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds after a shooting at Parkside Gardens Apartments, 621 NW 2nd St., according to the OPD.

On June 6, the sheriff’s office responded to a double shooting at Whispering Sands Apartments, where two juveniles were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

In January, Omarea James, 18, was shot in the back while at Northwest Fifth Street and Northwest 110th Avenue. He survived but suffered a spinal injury. Nathaniel James Woodruff, 20, was arrested in connection to that shooting.

Last July, Ky’rion Weather, 15, died of a gunshot wound suffered at a home on Southeast 105th Avenue in Summerfield. No charges have been filed in the case.