Killings fall in Orlando, up in Orange
Police say it’s hard to pinpoint reasons
Malinda McNair-Rucker was in bed when the gunshot shattered the sliding glass door leading to her bedroom.
Two men, masked and dressed all in black, rushed past McNair-Rucker on July 6 at her apartment near Pine Hills and Silver Star roads. As they did, her 34-year-old son Primes “PJ” Rucker III came out from his bedroom, pushed his 19-year-old nephew out of the way toward safety and yelled at the men to get out.
That’s when they shot
Rucker dead before running out of the apartment.
“It just happened so fast,” McNair-Rucker said.
Rucker was one of 56 homicides this year investigated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, an increase from 50 in 2018. Meanwhile, the Orlando Police Department saw a big decrease. It investigated 26 homicides in 2019, compared with 43 the previous year, said Sgt. Joe Capece, who heads the homicide unit.
Elsewhere in Central Florida, homicides fell in Osceola County Sheriff’s
Office to seven, compared with 12 in 2018. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office had five in 2019 and eight in 2018. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office investigated three homicides, down from four.
Homicide statistics tend to ebb and flow from year to year, so investigators say it’s hard to pinpoint why that happens.
Orange County Sheriff’s Office homicide Sgt. Joe Covelli said the majority of the county’s homicides were drug-related, while 10 resulted from domestic violence.
There was also no particular area of the county that was hit harder by homicide than others, he said.
Spokeswoman Michelle Guido said homicides are hard to predict, so the agency focuses on curbing the activity that leads to violence, such as gangs and drugs.
“We’ll put extra patrols in areas with a gang beef,” Guido said.
Deputies also took about 1,400 guns off the street last year that were illegally possessed, she said.
Orlando police spokesman Sgt. David Baker highlighted new initiatives under Chief Orlando Rolón, who became the agency’s leader in December 2018, as a reason for the lower homicide number.
In April, the department reorganized its patrol unit to add more officers to the streets during peak times: between 7 a.m. and midnight on weekdays and 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends.
Rolón also combined the drug and gang units into one, which Baker said has improved communication.
“What exact effect [the initiatives] had is almost unquantifiable, but it certainly doesn’t hurt,” Baker said.
Domestic violence leads to killings
Some of the region’s highestprofile killings in 2019 were linked to domestic violence.
In January, Grant Amato shot his parents Chad and Margaret Amato, and brother Cody Amato to death inside their Chuluota home amid a dispute over the $200,000 of his family’s money he spent on a Bulgarian call girl. Grant Amato, 30, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
The same month in Winter Park, police say Danielle Redlick fatally stabbed her husband Michael Redlick at their home. Michael Redlick, 65, was a sports executive who had worked for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies and was a beloved faculty member at the University of Central Florida. Danielle Redlick, 46, is facing a first-degree murder charge and awaiting trial.
Then in October, Nicole Montalvo dropped off her son at the St. Cloud house of her estranged husband family and was never heard from again.
Her dismembered body was found at the family’s and her brother-in-law’s properties.
Her husband, Christopher Otero-Rivera, and his father, Angel Rivera, face first-degree murder charges, although they have not been indicted. Otero-Rivera’s mother, Wanda Rivera, is accused of tampering with evidence and brother Nicholas Rivera is considered a person of interest.
The region’s oldest homicide victim also died at the hands of family. Lila Priebe, 83, was shot to death by her husband Bruce Priebe Aug. 8 in Osceola County. Lila Priebe was terminally ill.
After killing her, Bruce Priebe took his own life, investigators said.
Some killings still unsolved
In Orlando, 18 of the 25 homicides have been cleared by arrest and Capece said he believes a few more could be solved in the coming months.
“The Orlando Police department is blessed with having great homicide detectives who are tenacious, dogged and stand up for those family members to get justice for the victims,” Capece said.
Capece said two other cases could be solved if any of the many witnesses to the killings came forward. In one, Cordarryl Atwell, 23, was killed at Windsor Cove Apartments on Mercy Drive on Oct. 12. Someone in a vehicle shot at two groups of people and hit Atwell, Capece said.
The other case happened during a Nov. 3 block party on Polk Street and Benson Avenue that was attended by about 200 people. Several shots were fired, hitting three people, including 30-year-old Lil Kirk Jay Willis Jr., who was killed.
“It was a street party so there were a lot of witnesses, but we haven’t gotten any help,” Capece said.
Rucker’s death is one of the 27 cases Orange County detectives are still working to solve. His mother, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, tried to grab at her son’s killers as they ran away, but could not. She did not see their faces and they did not steal anything from the apartment.
She said she believes her son was targeted, though she doesn’t know why, and his killers were familiar with the layout of the apartment.
Covelli said deputies also believe Rucker was targeted.
“When you have people go in to pretty much execute the victim while making no demands and no thefts, it’s pretty clear the victim was targeted,” Covelli said.
His mother described him as a loving father of a 5-year-old son who liked to make others laugh. He did electrical work and was employed in the restaurant industry, but spent a lot of time caring for his mother, she said.
“He cooked for me, he would take me to doctor’s appointments, he would pick up my prescriptions,” she said. “There’s nothing in this world he wouldn’t do for me.”
McNair-Rucker still lives in the apartment where her son was killed because she cannot afford to move. She said she believes her son saved her nephew’s life and was coming to save her when he was shot.
“I wish he would have run the other way,” she said. “But they knew he would come for me.”
Anyone with information about any homicide case can call Crimeline at 407-423-8477.