Crime

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®.

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. -- Undercover narcotics agents arrested a 24-year-old man at a home near Ormond Beach after a search warrant revealed four pounds of marijuana in the kitchen, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said, adding the drugs had been delivered by an unknown person earlier that day.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Kandas Baker remains incarcerated at the Volusia Country Branch Jail in Daytona Beach on meth lab-related drug charges.

OAK HILL -- A 43-year-old Oak Hill woman is facing drug charges after a tip to narcotics agents led to the discovery of a meth lab in her home, an official with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.

Agents with the East Volusia Narcotics Task Force responded Monday to Kandas Baker’s home on Bills Hill Road to investigate a complaint about drug activity.

Search in vicinity of HE Thomas Jr. Parkway near Sanford border comes up empty

LAKE MARY -- The unmistakeable sound of a commercial airliner making its descent over Lake Mary to land at the nearby Sanford Airport is one thing, but the thunderous twirling of the blades of the Seminole County Sheriff's helicopter at 2 in the morning at a low altitude reaches new heights on the noise meter.

State Attorney's Office not willing to prosecute for domestic violence as a result

Photos for Headline Surfer® / Another chapter in George Zimmerman's life concludes with no charges filed in domestic violence case alleged by his estranged wife, Shellie, shown here in court with him during his murder trial. Later, he's shown cuffed after his wife claimed he displayed a gun (which she later recanted), punched her dad in the nose and shattered her iPad, like the one shown here. 

LAKE MARY -- George Zimmerman won't be arrested on domestic violence charges in connection with a Sept. 9 argument with his estranged wife, Shellie, and her father, David Dean at a home on Sprucewood Court they were living in, during which he she claimed he shattered her iPad, Lake Mary cops announced today.

WESH Orlando's Claire Metz had loaded semi-automatic pointed at her head

Photos for Headline Surfer® / 

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- An off-duty public safety tele-communicator with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was arrested Tuesday after she pointed a gun at WESH-TV Orlando reporter Clare Metz who had gone to her house to try to interview her for a story involving a medical call where a patient died in September after an ambulance crew was directed to the wrong location.

Headline Surfer photos® / This image from a KKK recritment flyer among more than a dozen left in front of homes in New Smyrna Beach's Westside, shows the traditional hood and dress attire.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Rev. Lorenzo Laws, pastor of the Allen Chapel AME Church is livid. And with good reason: More than a dozen recruiting flyers for the Ku Klux Klan were left in front yards of homes across the street from his church in the predominantly African-American Westside community.

"I am absolutely and totally offended that someone at a time like this would come into this community and distribute this type of literature," Laws said Tuesday.

Headline Surfer photos by Henry Frederick / Scenes like this bar patron drinking a beer on the public sidewalk in front of the Om Bar on Flagler Avenue during the 2011 New Smyrna Ween -- Halloween Creepy Crawl on Flagler Avenue, are no longer being tolerated by Police Chief George Markert, shown here at left, who was hired as New Smyrna Beach's top cop last Spring.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- For the past five years, patrons attending the six annual alcohol-fueled street festivals sponsored by the Merchants of Flagler Avenue Hospitality Group and paid for with tax dollars have been able to drink in public without impunity from the cops. But all that changed Halloween night.