{"id":270671,"date":"2026-05-14T10:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T10:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T10:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T10:07:24","slug":"man-connected-to-deadly-st-pete-robbery-operated-illegal-drug-house-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270671\/","title":{"rendered":"Man connected to deadly St. Pete robbery operated illegal drug house: police"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Video: Man arrested following deadly robbery turned shooting in St. Pete<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ST. PETERSUBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 A man was arrested Tuesday after an investigation into a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/man-arrested-connection-deadly-robbery-192242748.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:deadly robbery at his home;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;deadly robbery at his home&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">deadly robbery at his home<\/a> led to the discovery of illegal drugs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the St. Petersburg Police Department,\u00a0officers responded to a reported shooting at the 800 block of 14th Avenue South on April 15 at 11:49 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Detectives determined that Darren Kegler, 55, was operating a drug house, and that John Knight, 48, and Ronnie Dials, 56, entered the duplex to rob him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police said there was an altercation in which Dials and Kegler were shot. Dials died at the scene, and Kegler was treated at the hospital for his injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Knight was arrested on April 17 for\u00a0first-degree murder, attempted murder, and possession of a firearm by a felon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As the investigation continued, detectives reportedly found one kilo of cocaine in Kegler\u2019s car, 463 grams of cocaine in his second vehicle, and 173.8 grams of cocaine in a container in his kitchen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police said he also had a warrant for his arrest from Orlando for conspiracy to traffic cocaine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Kegler was taken into custody on Tuesday for three counts of trafficking in cocaine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Video: Man arrested following deadly robbery turned shooting in St. Pete ST. PETERSUBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 A man&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[115910,8918,105389,105390,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-270671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-darren-kegler","tag-illegal-drugs","tag-john-knight","tag-ronnie-dials","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270671","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=270671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}