Crime

Police Chief Michael Chitwood ramps up rhetoric, with name calling, describing wanted African-American suspected accomplice as 'gun-toting thug'

Photos for Headline Surfer® / Deandre Peterson, shown, in the inset, has been booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on a murder charge in the shooting death of Quuordre Wiley, 21, and police are looking for Justin Williams, suspected in an earlier related shooting incident.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Violent crime continues unabated in Daytona Beach with no end in sight as witnessed by a cold-blooded murder on a Friday afternoon as gunfire rang out in a salon.

Ebony Wilkerson, 32 and pregnant, is shown here at first apperance Saturday at the Volusia County Branch Jail courtroom in Daytona Beach before County Judge Shirley Green where she was ordered held on $1.2 million bail on three counts of attempted first-degree murder of her three children, ages 3, 9, & 10, after purposey driving her minivan into the Daytona  surf.

DAYTONA BEACH -- As she drove her minivan into the rough ocean surf at Daytona Beach, 32-year-old Ebony Wilkerson locked the doors of her 2012 Honda Odyssey, put up the windows and told her three frightened children --ages 3,9, & 10 -- to close their eyes and go to sleep.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Kelly Ann Balerdas had obvious signs of trama to her body, Kissimmee police said, of the unsolved homicide of March 6, 2004.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – It was almost a decade ago ago that 22-year-old Kelly Ann Balderas was found slain in her motel room at the former Breeze Inn, located at 900 E. Vine St. by the hotel manager in well-being check after she hadn't bee heard from by friends for three days, Kissimmee cops said.

The locale is now a drug treatment facility. And it is near where Banderas's mother, mother, Diana Bryan, will be holding a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Saturday, in remembrance of her daughter who was beaten to death. The homicide remains unsolved.

The vigil will be at the corner of Damon and East Vine streets, said Stacie Miller, spokeswoman for the Kissimmee police force.

It was 10 years earlier on March 6, 2004, that Kelly Ann Balderas's body was found at 4 p.m. in her hotel room with obvious signs of trauma to her body, Miller said.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / A still image was made from a security camera of a robbery mid-day Friday at the IHop.

KISSIMMEE -- City cops responded at 12:15 p.m. today to the International House of Pancakes at 1715 West Vine Street after a man walked up to the cashier, implied he had a gun and demanded cash, before walking out the door with a wad of money.

"He threatened a server and demanded money from the register, Kissimmee police spokesman Stacie Miller told Headline Surfer®. "After obtaining an undisclosed amount of money, the suspect left on foot. No one inside the restaurant was injured during the incident."

"He threatened a server and demanded money from the register, Kissimmee police spokesman Stacie Miller told Headline Surfer®. "After obtaining an undisclosed amount of money, the suspect left on foot. No one inside the restaurant was injured during the incident."

Photos for Headline Surfer®

HOLLY HILL -- What sparked a fight that led to a man's death after he was pushed through a plate glass window outside Brown's Billiards over the weekend is a mystery as three men accused of second-degree murder remain held without bail at the Volusia County Branch Jail.

"The reason the fight is unknown and currently under investigation," Holly Hill Police Chief Mark Barker told Headline Surfer® Wednesday.

Photos for Headline Surfer® / Accused bank robber Michael N. London, 63, is shown in a police mugshot on Friday, a far cry from the Santa Claus get-up shown at far left in a surveillance video still from Monday's armed robbery of the Port Orange Sun Trust branch on Nova Road.

PORT ORANGE -- If you thought the man dressed in the Santa outfit who held up the Sun Trust Bank two days before Christmas was having a bad hair day, imagine what an eye opener he was to Port Orange cops who nabbed him outside his residence earlier today, sans the holiday get-up.

Homicide may be result of stray bullet; investigators interviewing possible gunman

Headline Surfer® locator / 3220 Cadehill Drive in Deltona as shown in this snapshot graphic is the locale of a fatal shooting this Wednesday morning.

DELTONA -- The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after gunfire this Christmas morning that claimed the life of a 69-year-old man shot in the chest. His name has not been released.

"Deputies are investigating to determine whether a stray bullet may have caused the death," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson told Headline Surfer®.

Deputies were dispatched to 3220 Cadehill Drive after the Sheriff’s Office’s Communications Center received a 9-1-1 call at 10:02 a.m. that a man had been shot.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / At left is a snapshot from surveillance video inside the Sun Trust Bank branch, 3865 Nova Road, showing a man in a Santa Claus get-up on Monday afternoon robbing the bank while displaying a wrapped package he insinuated was harmful, as in an explosive. The fake Santa left the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash. The package turned out not to be harmful.

PORT ORANGE -- Just two days before Christmas, a man in a Santa get-up with stocking hat, fake white hair and beard, robbed the Sun Trust bank branch, after placing a package on the counter while standing in front of a teller and passed her a note demanding cash and insinuating the package was harmful.

"An undisclosed amount of US currency was given to the male, who left the package on the counter prior to exiting the bank," Port Orange Police Lt. John Jakovenko told Headline Surfer® on the 3:13 p.m. robbery at the SunTrust, 3865 Nova Road.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / If you know this suspected robber seen in this snapshot from surveillance video Saturday inside the Chase Bank, 3711 W. Vine St., Kissimmee police want to hear from you.

KISSIMMEE -- A man wearing a ball cap and jacket walked into the Chase Bank at 12:50 p.m. today, approached the teller, removed a folded nylon bag from his pocked and ordered the her to fill it with cash.

No weapon was displayed or implied and nobody was hurt in the hold-up, Kissimmee police spokeswomamn Stacie Miller told Headline Surfer®.