![\"Halloween](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5ee933icg6wndslr.jpg\")
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ORLANDO, Fla. – A Central Florida man accused of killing two people in a shooting<\/a> in downtown Orlando on Halloween 2024 is set to appear in court this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jaylen Edgar, 18, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n Edgar is expected to appear before a judge Wednesday to ask for a new public defender.\u00a0<\/p>\n CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP<\/a><\/p>\n Orlando Halloween shooting suspect wants new attorney <\/p>\n In a two-page, handwritten letter to the judge, Edgar alleges that he has been “ineffectively represented” by his current attorney.\u00a0<\/p>\n Edgar wrote that his attorney failed to consider his mental state during the night of the incident and that the state tried to “force-feed a 50-year plea deal” down his throat. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “Legally speaking, I am not willing to entertain any plea offers until I have explored all of my defense options,” Edgar wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jaylen Edgar, the teen accused of killing two people during a shooting in 2024, has written a letter requesting new counsel. (Courtesy: Orange County Clerk’s Office) <\/p>\n His request comes just before his trial is set to begin on Jan. 12. Jury selection is set to begin on Wednesday.<\/p>\n SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35’S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS<\/a><\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n Edgar, who was 17 years old at the time of the shooting, is accused of killing two people and injuring several others after shooting into a crowd gathered in downtown Orlando on Halloween night in 2024.<\/p>\n Two people were killed in the shooting: Timothy Schmidt Jr., a 19-year-old University of Central Florida student; and Tyrek Hill<\/a>, a 25-year-old man from Clermont. The shooting caused panic, with a 26-year-old woman being trampled by the fleeing crowd. \u00a0<\/p>\n Orlando Police released body camera footage<\/a> of officers tackling Edgar to the ground and putting him in handcuffs.<\/p>\n Police said between 50,000 and 100,000 people were downtown at the time of the shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source: This article was written with information from Orange County court documents and previous FOX 35 reporting. \u00a0<\/p>\n Orlando News<\/a>Orange County News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. – A Central Florida man accused of killing two people in a shooting in downtown Orlando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47,115,1335,139,141,140,628],"class_list":["post-109087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}