Separate shootings claim one teen, injures another

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Posted July 23, 2021 | By Carlos Medina and Jennifer Murty

Two shootings in less than 24 hours at Ocala apartment complexes left a 16-year-old dead and a 19-year-old fighting for his life.

Ocala Police Department investigators said Friday evening that the two shootings did not appear directly connected.

However, OPD Chief Mike Balken said he found it hard to believe there wasn’t some tie.

“Two shootings in Ocala in less than 24 hours. For some reason the youth of today think that violence is the way you solve problems,” Balken said.

The first shooting happened just before 9:30 p.m. when Joshua Tyson was shot at Sutton Place Apartments, 523 NE 23rd Circle.

Joshua was taken to the hospital but later died of his injuries. Police said the young man had a stolen handgun when he was shot.

No arrests in that shooting were reported Friday evening.

The second shooting happened just after 2 p.m. at Promenade at Ocala Apartments, 1421 SW 27th Ave.

A woman, who said she saw the incident but did not want to give her name, said the 19-year-old man was shot at least four times.

After the shooting, she tried to help the injured man.

“I took my shirt off and applied pressure,” she said.

She said the man was hit in the arm, the leg, the hip and the abdomen. Police are not releasing the name of the man but said he was in critical condition at the hospital Friday evening.

After the shooting, there were reports that the family of the injured man chased and exchanged gunfire with the gunman, who took off on foot.

Police arrested a man they believe was the gunman a short time later and recovered a weapon believed to be the gun used in the shooting.

Investigators did not immediately release the name of the man taken into custody.

According to the eyewitness, the shooting happened after the two men exchanged words.

The gunman may have been in the area looking for the person who shot and wounded him earlier in the year, Balken said.

The fatal shooting at Sutton Place on Thursday was the second deadly incident at the complex in recent months.

Chris “Chevy” Chevelon was shot at Sutton Place on Dec. 6. He was 15.

It’s not known if Joshua’s and Chris’ shooting deaths were related, but they did know one another. The 16-year-old dedicated a rap to Chris that he posted to Soundcloud days after the 15-year-old’s death.

Another shooting death, that of Kobe Bradshaw, 18, may have been related to Chris’ shooting. Bradshaw was shot on June 8 in Ocala Park Estates and died later at a hospital.

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

Witnesses told investigators they believed Chris 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. Chris was a suspect in that shooting, according to the memo.

Investigators lacked sufficient evidence to bring charges in either case.

The latest incidents are among a series of shootings involving young people in the last year.

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

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, according to the sheriff’s office.

“I don’t know want more a law enforcement agency can do. We talk about education,” Balken said. “We’ve been preaching gun violence education. We’ve been teaching D.A.R.E. for as long I have been in the police force. I don’t know if education is the answer. I don’t know what is the answer. We have to figure out some way for these kids to put down the guns.”