DELTONA -- An armed home invasion Dec. 14 in Deltona resulted in several shots being fired.
Deputies found the suspect vehicle in a matter of minutes, but the suspect driver then wrecked the vehicle about six miles south of the robbery scene. However, not all of the suspects were found in the wrecked vehicle; a lone suspect was found suffering from a gunshot wound to the groin a little less than a mile from the victims' house. Once all of the suspects were accounted for, a total of five people -- two adult males, one teen boy and two teen girls -- had either been taken into custody for questioning or been transported to a hospital.
The chain of events started at 2448 Lackland Drive a little before 1 a.m. Three men burst into the home and confronted a woman, her adult son and the son's girlfriend.
"During the encounter, 24-year-old Julio Blanco was pistol whipped, resulting in a laceration to his head," Sheriff's spokesman Haught said. "The suspects then grabbed a safe and loaded it into their vehicle. Statements from witnesses and evidence on scene indicate that the suspects fired multiple shots as they fled. Blanco obtained a gun and fired some shots, too... The son was later treated on scene for his injury."
Deputies in the area started looking for the suspect vehicle, a Ford Explorer, and in about five minutes Sheriff's Sgt. Thomas Dane spotted it. The driver immediately sped off with Dane in pursuit. Less than two minutes later, though, the Explorer rolled over onto its side. Adam Salgado, 30; a teenage boy and two teen girls were found in the vehicle along with the victim's safe. At approximately 1:30 a.m., as deputies were both at the victims' house and at the vehicle crash scene, another 911 call came in reporting that a man suffering from a gunshot wound was in the front yard of a home in the 2100 block of Puerto Rico Drive. Deputies responded and determined that 33-year-old Patrick Lauby had been
involved in the robbery less than a mile away, Haught said.