Man charged with murder after shooting at hotel
A 20-year-old man was charged with murder after a shooting at the Vacation Lodge hotel Wednesday that killed a 49-year-old man on his birthday, Orlando police announced Sunday.
Police responded to 720 South Orange Blossom Trail around 8:30 p.m., where they found Richard Bailey II laying on the second floor with gunshot wounds, said OPD spokesman Sgt. David Baker.
Bailey was taken by ambulance to Orlando Regional Medical C e n t e r, where he later died.
OPD said witnesses saw the suspects speeding away from the hotel in a dark Chevy.
On Friday, Deundre
public. Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and seven other counties already have that requirement on the books. People who sell a firearm privately wouldn’t have to run a background check, but they would have to keep a notarized record of the sale, including a signed affidavit that the purchaser meets the requirements to own a gun. Failure to make the record would be a misdemeanor offense.
Federally licensed firearms dealers already are required to run background checks.
State Sen. Joe Gruters, who is chairman of the Florida GOP, said he’s a “solid no” on the bill. Galvano’s colleagues — Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker José Oliva — haven’t embraced the gun bill, but they are defending Galvano’s record.
Oliva said he has served with Galvano for nine years, and Galvano is not a “RINO (Republican in name only).”
“The pile-on was entirely unnecessary,” Oliva said, adding that he doesn’t expect the gun bill to pass in the House.
Galvano has a history of supporting conservative causes that include banning sanctuary cities, lowering taxes and expanding school choice programs, DeSantis said.
Sen. Manny Diaz, RHialeah, dismissed the notion that the backlash showcases a divide in the Republican Party. He said the comments directed at Galvano aren’t warranted.
“As far as a divide in the Republican Party, I think that sometimes gets exaggerated,” he said. “There are individual senators who have individual views . ... We are made up of individuals who have (different) views and life experiences that we bring to the table. It seems to be a lot of click bait.”
Galvano’s legacy also will include legislation passed after the 2018 Parkland school shooting,
“Like the opportunity to sell it to developers?” she said. “There are opportunities now to create more assurances for not building there.”
Bob White, president of the Twin Rivers Homeowners Association, a 1,173 home subdivision that borders the golf course, said it’s unlikely that a large development would replace the greens and fairways because the land sits too close to the environmentally-sensitive Econlockhatchee and the Little Econ rivers.
“Our position, after talking to our attorney, is that there are no rights to develop there already,” he said. “Any [large] development would sit too close” to the rivers.
Oviedo purchased the golf course for nearly $5.5 million in January 2017. To fund the purchase, Oviedo raised property owners’ stormwater fees an average of $3 a month. This fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, Oviedo has budgeted $1.4 million to operate the course.
According to city budget documents, the city intends to continue operating the golf course. However, if the “operation is not financially feasible, the city may convert it to park land and open space.”
As interest in the game of golf has declined in popularity, several local
Jerome Davis was charged with second-degree murder with a firearm. Online records show he is currently being held in Orange County Jail without bond.
Baker said homicide detectives are investigating the shooting and there are two suspects who have not been arrested. a compromise he helped broker that raised the age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21, required a school safety officer be stationed on every campus, boosted funding for school-based mental health, and created Florida’s red-flag law.
Fred Guttenberg, a gun-control advocate whose daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting, said Galvano should be “honored” and “commended” for having the courage to take on the powerful gun lobby.
“He is trying to do one simple thing — be a part of making sure more Floridians don’t die of gun violence,” Guttenberg said. “There is not a single thing he has gotten behind that is an affront to the Second Amendment. ... They are using ampedup rhetoric to tell a lie.”
State Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, said Galvano shouldn’t worry about the backlash because the majority of Floridians support expanded background checks. A Florida Atlantic University poll conducted shortly after the Feb. 14, 2018, Parkland school shooting found 87% of Florida voters supported universal background checks.
“I think he’ll be pleased with his place in history when he looks back,” Daley said.
Galvano toured Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shortly after the Parkland massacre. He saw fresh blood stains, and a school riddled with bullet holes.
“I will carry that experience with me for the rest of my life,” Galvano wrote in a letter to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. governments also have purchased struggling courses in recent years as a way of preserving the open space from being turned into rooftops and storefronts.
In 2017, Seminole County purchased the old Rolling Hills Golf Club, just south of State Road 434 and east of Interstate 4, after a group of investors bought the land three years earlier with the intent of building homes. The county is now turning those empty 100 acres into a public park.
In 2015, the city of Casselberry purchased the struggling Casselberry Golf Club for $2.2 million after the owner said he had plans to sell the course and property.
Now Oviedo has a chance to permanently protect the Twin Rivers Golf Course as a wide open space that the public can enjoy, Sladek said. The other council members agreed to continue discussing the issue at future meetings, but held off on enacting any development ban.
“Some future council could say: ‘We could wipe out all of our debt and make all our dreams come true’” by selling the golf course, Sladek said. “We bought it to preserve it, so great, let’s do that.”