PORT ST. LUCIE – A Port St. Lucie man and a 15-year-old were each arrested on June 24 following an incident that began when a toy Orbeez water gun was fired at a moving vehicle and escalated into an armed confrontation, according to Port St. Lucie Police reports.
At about 8:50 p.m., June 24, officers responded to the area of Southwest Morelia Lane and Southwest Acapulco Terrace after receiving reports that juveniles fired what initially was thought to be a BB gun or pellet gun from a moving vehicle, but was actually an Orbeez gun that shoots small water gun pellets, according to police reports.
Police deployed a drone over the scene to provide responding officers with real-time situational awareness before patrol units arrived moments later.
Believing he and his fiancée, Jessica Mitchem, were being shot at with a BB gun or pellet gun, Gregory Allen Davis, 49, and his fiancée, who was driving the car, followed the juveniles’ vehicle while they remained on the phone with 911, providing updates to dispatch, according to police reports.
The couple followed the juveniles to the intersection of Southwest Morelia Lane and Southwest Acapulco Terrace, where Davis then got out of his car with a loaded 9mm handgun, according to police reports.
Davis ordered the three juveniles out of their vehicle at gunpoint and onto the ground, where they remained until officers arrived. A witness living nearby who recorded the scene told investigators that Davis repeatedly yelled vulgar commands while saying he was carrying a “nine-millimeter firearm” according to police reports.
Video obtained during the investigation corroborated witness statements and showed Davis maintaining the juveniles at gunpoint, according to police reports.
Following the investigation, Davis was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and false imprisonment of a child to commit aggravated abuse.
He was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail as of June 26 on a $30,000 bond on those charges.
Davis told officers as he was being handcuffed that he “believed he should have shot the juveniles if he knew he would be arrested,” according to the arrest affidavit.
The teenager, a Port St. Lucie resident, was charged with shooting or throwing a missile at or into an occupied vehicle and was taken to the Department of Juvenile Justice, according to an arrest affidavit.
Investigators determined Davis had multiple opportunities to safely disengage while law enforcement was actively responding to the incident, but instead chose to follow the juveniles and then order them out of the car at gunpoint, police said in a statement.