FORT PIERCE, Fla. – Authorities said that a man initially identified as a person of interest in a shooting during Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations has been cleared of any involvement.
Update 2:44 p.m. Jan. 19:
The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said Frederick Lamar Johnson Jr., initially named as a person of interest in a shooting at Ilouis Ellis Park, turned himself in and is no longer a person of interest. Deputies said that Johnson was wanted on a felony warrant for violation of probation stemming from drug-related charges and was taken to jail without bond.
Prior to turning himself in, Johnson took to social media, appearing on Facebook Live to proclaim his innocence, WPEC reported.
Deputies have not named any additional persons of interest.
-Lauren Silver, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Original report:
On Wednesday, St. Lucie County deputies said they were looking for Frederick Lamar Johnson Jr., 27, who is also wanted on a separate violation of probation charge.
“We have active warrants in the system, and we believe that this person was present during the incident,” Chief Deputy Brian Hester said at a news conference Wednesday.
1 dead after shooting at MLK Day event injures several in Florida
More than 1,000 people had gathered Monday at Ilouis Ellis Park in Fort Pierce for an after-parade celebration that Hester described as “a family event.”
“There (were) kids, there were bounce houses, there were food trucks,” he said. “There was a car show going on.”
Around 5:20 p.m., shots rang out following a dispute between two or more people, authorities said. Officials initially said that they believed the incident stemmed from a gang-related dispute, though Hester said on Wednesday that investigators no longer believed that.
“It wasn’t like two gangs showed up and said, ‘Let’s have a beef with each other,’” Hester said. He added that investigators believe some of the people involved have been documented as gang members.
“This incident stemmed from a dispute and they chose … a way to resolve that dispute that basically had no concern for the lives of all the other thousand-plus people that were enjoying a family event. And when they pulled those guns out and they started shooting and shooting at each other, they didn’t take into account, and they had no care in the world about anybody around them.”
The shooting left eight people with gunshot wounds and four others injured, officials said. Nikkitia Bryant, a 29-year-old Fort Pierce native who was at the park with her 9-year-old daughter, died of her injuries on Tuesday.
Family members told WPBF that Bryant’s daughter saw her get shot in the stomach while she was standing at a food truck. Bryant’s brother, Calvin Bethel, told the news station that she and her daughter didn’t know anyone else at the event.
Authorities do not believe that any of the victims were involved in the dispute.
“As far as I know the victims didn’t have anything to do with it,” Hester said. “They were just standing wherever they were standing when the incident broke out and (they) were hit by stray bullets.”
More than 50 shell casings from at least three different calibers of weapons were recovered from the scene, officials said. No arrests have yet been made.
