{"id":258218,"date":"2026-05-04T20:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/258218\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T20:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:32:07","slug":"ex-police-officer-accused-of-burning-fort-pierce-bike-shop-owner-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/258218\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-police officer accused of burning Fort Pierce bike shop owner alive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A former Melbourne police officer and Treasure Coast first responder is on trial for murder. <\/p>\n<p>Otto Lenke is charged with shooting and killing <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/friends-honor-master-mechanic-found-dead-after-fort-pierce-fire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Richard Benson<\/a> inside Benson&#8217;s bike shop, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/firefighters-find-body-after-extinguishing-fire-at-commercial-building-in-fort-pierce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fast Frank&#8217;s<\/a>, back in February 2021. <\/p>\n<p>WATCH: State seeking death penalty for former cop <\/p>\n<p>State seeks death penalty against former cop charged with killing bike shop owner<\/p>\n<p>The crime took place just down the street from the Fort Pierce Police Department headquarters. <\/p>\n<p>In opening statements, the state contends that Lenke not only shot Benson, but spread denatured alcohol over his body and set him on fire while he was still alive.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/friends-honor-master-mechanic-found-dead-after-fort-pierce-fire\" class=\"ListItem \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"ListItem-category\">Fort Pierce<\/p>\n<p>    Friends honor master mechanic found dead after Fort Pierce fire<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As to a possible motive, the state says Benson was dating a woman that Lenke had once been romantically involved with.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors showed the jury surveillance video of the crime during the first day of testimony on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0The state is seeking the death penalty in the case.<\/p>\n<p>The trial should last the week.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777926727_903_.jpeg\" alt=\"REP_CARD_JON-SHAINMAN_JUPITER_FS.jpg\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WPTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A former Melbourne police officer and Treasure Coast first responder is on trial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[111932,171,173,172,111931],"class_list":["post-258218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-otto-lenke","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-richard-benson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258218","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=258218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}