An older couple was shot to death and their neighbor wounded July 23 in what Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey called an ‘isolated, domestic homicide” in a West Melbourne neighborhood.
The suspected gunman, believed to be a relative of the man and woman who were slain, was later located by sheriff’s agents following an extensive search in and around the heavily wooded area.
“We have the suspect in custody,” said Sheriff Ivey in a statement issued hours after the shooting took place in a residential area which sits south of U.S. 192. Multiple patrol cars from both the sheriff’s office and the West Melbourne police department blocked off the area.
The incident was reported to police after gunfire erupted in the 2500 block of Washington Street Wednesday evening. Both agencies responded around 8:50 p.m.
Ivey said that the unidentified male victim approached a neighbor to tell her that something had happened to his wife at their home when several rounds were fired at the man and the neighbor. The man, reportedly struck in the chest, was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The neighbor was recovering from a gunshot wound to her leg.
Deputies arrived moments later and began to search the area around the home for both the shooter and possibly other possible victims. The body of the man’s wife was found in their home, the sheriff’s office reported. Later deputies used police dogs to track possible scents along the darkened stretch of Milwaukee Avenue and other nearby canal-lined roads.
Crime scene tape was used to rope off the home, which sits on nearly two acres of land. Neighbors stood outside and watched as detectives walked back and forth through the crime scene.
“They were a beautiful, friendly couple; they were like family to me,” said Cynthia Dale, who waited on the corner across from the crime scene for any word on the pair.
Dale’s voice wavered with emotion as she stood near one of the patrol cars.
“I would give her a big hug and take them some of our vegetables, big old bunches of collard greens,” she said.
Ivey did not release a motive and said that his homicide agents would be working at the scene throughout the night. The shooting deaths mark the 11th and 12th reported homicides to take place in Brevard County so far this year.
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J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Or X, formerly known as Twitter: @JDGallop.