A man is facing a murder charge after he fatally shot another man at his St. Petersburg home during a dispute last week, police said.
Police on Sunday arrested Corey Deron Battle, 47, on a second-degree murder charge in connection to the shooting of 44-year-old Jerome Smith three days earlier.
A neighbor of Smith’s called police about 8:45 p.m. Thursday after finding him bleeding at his home in the 800 block of 21st Avenue South, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department. Officers found Smith alive and bleeding from a gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital and died there Sunday.
Detectives determined that Battle shot Smith at the home during a dispute, police said. The two men knew each other.
According to an arrest affidavit, Battle told police that he shot Smith in the head after Smith pulled a gun on him first. Battle said he then got rid of the gun in a waterway in a southern part of the city and disposed of the clothes he was wearing at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, the affidavit states.
Battle lives on Oakley Avenue, about a mile west of Smith’s home, according to the affidavit.
Battle was also booked into the Pinellas County Jail on two counts of failing to meet internet registration requirements for a sexual offender, records show. He was being held without bond on Monday.