Law enforcement officials in Florida's Polk County said Sunday that a 33-year-old former Marine in body armor entered two houses north of Lakeland early Sunday and murdered four people, including a mother and the 3-month-old baby she was carrying. The gunman, who surrendered after a long gunfight with deputies, also shot an 11-year-old girl seven times and killed the family dog, Sheriff Grady Judd at a news conference. He had no apparent connection to his victims.
The alleged murderer, Bryan Riley, was wounded in the gunfight and tried unsuccessfully to grab a Lakeland Police officer's gun at the hospital, Judd said. Riley was charged with several murder counts on Sunday and informed in court on Monday that he would be held without bail.
The only identified victim so far is Justice Gleason, 40. The others killed in the shooting were the 33-year-old woman and her child and a 62-year-old woman related to the family who was living in a separate house in the backyard. The 11-year-old girl is in stable condition.
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A man believed to be Riley showed up at the house on Saturday night and said God had sent him to prevent a girl named "Amber" from committing suicide, Judd said. After the residents told him nobody named Amber lived there and they would call the cops if he didn't leave, Riley is reported to have told them that was unnecessary because "I'm the cops for God." They called the police anyway, and a 20-minute search failed to find the man's vehicle, Judd said.
Riley's girlfriend told police that he started saying he could speak directly with God after providing security at an Orlando church event, Judd said. She also said that Riley, a former Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, had PTSD but had never been violent before. According to an arrest affidavit, Riley told police that voices had instructed him to shoot several people, and he shot the baby "because I'm a sick guy" and he wants to "confess to all of it and be sent to jail."
Judd said Riley was honorably discharged, and somehow turned from "a decorated veteran" to "a cold, calculated murderer" and "evil in the flesh." He lamented that Riley surrendered, saying "if he'd have given us the opportunity, we'd have shot him up alive. But he didn't because he's a coward." You can read more at the Tampa Bay Times.
