Few details emerge from shooting
A suspected diaper thief shot dead outside a Pine Hills WalMart on Saturday was a fugitive on felony probation at the time of his death, state records show.
Arthur “Art” Adams, 19, was a gang member who was planning to sell the diapers, Orange County sheriff’s Capt. Angelo Nieves said.
A customer — a 50-year-old man — shot Adams after stepping in to help an employee who had followed Adams and two people with him to the parking lot, investigators said.
Nieves would not release the customer’s name, saying the information is “active criminal investigative information” and therefore exempt from disclosure under Florida’s public records law.
He also wouldn’t say whether the customer had a permit to legally carry a concealed weapon or if the suspected thief was armed at the time of the shooting.
Detectives are investigating and plan to forward their findings to the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office for a decision on whether the customer should be charged.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings urged the public not to rush to judgment. “The use of deadly force will be evaluated based on law and the right to protect one's self or others from great bodily harm or death,” he said in a statement.
Adams had been arrested at least nine times since 2011 on charges including grand theft, fleeing law enforcement and selling marijuana. A Facebook page that appears to be his shows him grinning as he displays guns and wads of cash.
In June, Adams was sentenced to 239 days in jail and four years of probation after pleading no contest to two racketeering charges. He failed to report to his probation officer in August and September and was declared an absconder after he couldn’t be found, Department of Corrections records show.
On Monday, Nieves said detectives were trying to identify a man seen on surveillance video with Adams at Wal-Mart. The Sheriff’s Office wouldn’t release the name of the third person, a girl. Deputies said she took off after the shooting but showed up at a hospital with a gunshot wound to her leg.
The incident unfolded about 8:15 a.m. when Adams and the others walked out of the store on Clarcona Ocoee Road at Pine Hills Road with two carts full of unpaid merchandise, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
At some point, the customer who stepped in to help the employee thought one of the suspects was arming himself and felt threatened, deputies said. The man then grabbed his gun and opened fire.
Deputies said Adams and the two others got into a red Nissan Rogue that was stolen during a carjacking Jan. 14 in Orange County and tried to drive away. They crashed into two other vehicles in the parking lot before getting out and running, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
Adams was found across the street at a Citgo gas station. He died at a hospital.