On Tuesday, Highlands County officials broke ground on the new Emergency Operations Center expansion on George Boulevard. The EOC is used to coordinate efforts amongst first responders, the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office, emergency personnel, and various other county departments during natural disasters. The new building will be built next to the existing structure and will be equipped to withstand the many hazards of hurricane force winds. Once the expansion is added there will be a total of 12,786 square feet of space for EOC staff and other officials and will feature a an upgraded-high tech situation room. Construction is estimated to take about 11 months.
A Desoto county teen accused of shooting and killing another teen at the Desoto County Fair in 2023, has been found guilty. Ryan Watson Jr. was just 15 years old when Arcadia Police say he murdered 17-year-old Daniel Rodreguez Lopez after a fight broke out between them at the fairgrounds. The incident quickly became viral on social media after onlookers caught the shooting on video. Watson Jr. was ultimately charged as an adult for 2nd Degree murder and for carrying a concealed weapon. On Monday, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of being re-evaluated after serving 25 years of his sentence.
The search is over for a double murder suspect after he was arrested in Central Florida. Scott Mitchell is accused of killing two people at a home in Binghamton, New York on February 3rd before escaping to the Sunshine State. The 50-year-old was captured in Daytona Beach yesterday afternoon after someone called in a tip, earning them a ten-thousand-dollar reward. Mitchell was spotted in several areas around Volusia County yesterday before he was taken into custody.
Florida’s ongoing nursing shortage is seeing improvements. The State University System says its nursing programs have maintained a standard of excellence by ensuring graduates excel on their exam and are prepared to provide quality healthcare to residents. Nine state universities are above the national benchmark of at least a 93-percent passage rate. The Florida Legislature has invested nearly 140-million dollars to expand nursing programs over the last three years, helping reverse the critical need for healthcare professionals across the state.
An Central Florida father is facing charges in connection to his child’s drowning death last year. 32-year-old Joshua Ruiz-Martinez is accused of playing video games while his infant was left unattended in a bathtub at their St. Cloud home last April. Police say Ruiz-Martinez originally told investigators that he had only left his daughter for several minutes while he forgot her bottle. However, police say his story and the timestamps on his computer did not match up. The infant’s death was ruled as an accidental drowning. The father is currently being held without bond on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child.
Police may be closer to making an arrest in a deadly hit-and-run in Sarasota. Sarasota Police announced yesterday they found the suspected driver that hit Taeler Joy Bennett and her two children Monday night. The three were crossing the street at US 301 and 7th Street when they were hit by a Lexus ES300. The mother is in critical condition. Her two-year-old and five-month-old children were killed. The driver fled the scene, but the SPD found the car and the person who may have been driving it. Police say the suspect is cooperating, but no arrest has been announced.
A suspect who is already behind bars on state charges is now facing charges in connection with a drive-by shooting that killed a 70-year-old woman in Lakeland on Christmas Eve in 2020. Taqiy Lewis is charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon. Federal prosecutors say forensic testing linked the 27-year-old to a gun used to kill Maebelle Cooper and injure three others. Lewis is serving time in state prison on unrelated charges.
A Tampa Bay hospital is fighting a verdict that it was responsible for a woman’s suicide. Lawyers for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital were in court yesterday asking for a retrial in the Maya Kowalski case. She was a 10-year-old girl from Sarasota County who was treated at the St. Petersburg hospital. Maya’s now 19, and her story was the subject of a Netflix documentary. The doctors treating her accused her mother of child abuse and prevented her from seeing Maya or taking her home. Maya’s mom wound up killing herself in 2017, and a jury awarded her family over 200 million dollars in damages in 2023. The hospital’s lawyers say the hospital is not responsible for the health of a patient it never treated. No ruling was issued yesterday.